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LAWD-A-MASSY! LOOK AHT MAH PAHNS AN’ EVERYTHING, A STICKIN 

TO DAT WALL!” 





The Wizard of the Island 

OR 

The Vindication of Prof. Waldinger 


Copyright, 1917, by 
P. S. WINGER. 
All Rights Reserved. 
Published 1917. 





15 1917 



PREFACE 


This little book is a Pseudo- Scientific 
Novel, which is merely designed to be the 
vehicle, by means of which the author en- 
deavors to broach a subject which he 
realizes full well is too big for him to 
handle in a thoroughly scientific manner. 

The subterfuge lies in the fact that 
Jack Emmert’s best is in reality the au- 
thor’s best effort, nevertheless, the author 
is sincere in his belief that he is funda- 
mentally correct in his premises concern- 
* ‘Matter and Motion and their relationship 
to the Dominant Ether of Space,” even 
though inadequately conveyed. — F. S. W. 


DEDICATED 


To the memory of my brother, Oswald 
Emmert Winger, C. E., whose help, sym- 
pathy, and encouragement, made this 
publication possible. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER page 

I. The Aviator’s Return 13 

II. The Mysterious Deflec- 
tion - - - - 19 

III. Steam Mountain Island 33 

IV. Shale Rock Cavern - 43 

V. The Circumnavigation 

OF THE Island - - 61 

VI. More Mysteries - - 77 

VII. The Advent of the 

Wizard - - - 91 

VIII. The Wizard’s Domain 103 

IX. We Become Better Ac- 
quainted - - - 113 

X. The Fairyland of 

Science - - - 121 

XI. The Vindication of Pro- 
fessor Waldinger - 135 

XII. The Crater Cork Blows 

Out - - - - 149 

XIII. The Burial of the 

Electron - - - 156 


XI. 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Frontispiece - _ . 

3 

High Rock - - - - 

- 52 

The Wizard’s Vibrometer - 

- 120 


xn. 


CHAPTER I. 


The Aviator’s Return. 

“Huxtry, huxtry; just out poipers.” 
“Enquirer, sir?” “All about the Lost 
Aviator’s Return. Buy a poiper, gents.” 

The above din assaulted the ears of 
pedestrians and theatergoers at about 
eleven o’clock the night of November 
First, Two Thousand and Fifteen. The 
streets were full of surging humanity; 
the pedestrian element having been ma- 
terially augmented by the outpourings 
from the adjacent theaters. 

So sudden was the onslaught of these 
paper vendors, that amidst the confusion 
of sounds incident to the selling of their 
“wares,” it was some moments before the 
public at large really grasped the full 
significance of the situation; then, in their 
turn, the newsboys were fairly besieged 
by eager outstretched hands. 

Not in many years had the papers con- 
13 


14 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

tained an item of more universal interest; 
the disappearance of the air-ship “Amer- 
ica” under such mystifying circumstances 
was still fresh in the minds of practically 
everybody. 

Having acquired their prize morsel of 
news, some in their eagerness sought a 
near-by lighted window, while others 
crammed their paper into overcoat pocket 
and rushed eagerly on, pending a more 
convenient reading. 

The following is a transcript from the 
news item which had caused all of this 
excitement : 

''Jack Emmert and Party Safe Home 

Again! The Mystery Ecrplainedr 

“Jack Emmert and party are once 
more safe and sound on American soil! 
Our readers will remember the intense 
excitement which prevailed at the mys- 
terious disappearance of Jack Emmert 
and his ‘America’ on the occasion of the 
International Aviation Event last July 
Fourth. 

“Our editor has just finished talking 
with Mr. Emmert over the radioscope, 
and while the celebrated aviator refused 
to give any detailed information at this 


THE AVIATOR^S RETURN 


15 


time, he has nevertheless kindly consented 
to give an account of his experiences be- 
fore the American Society of Scientific 
Research tomorrow evening at eight 
o’clock. A cordial invitation is extended 
to the public by the society, and their hall, 
immense as it is, will doubtless be tested 
to its utmost capacity. 

‘‘The radioscope bulletins of the ‘En- 
quirer’ and other American papers will 
have to suffice for those who may be so 
unfortunate as not to be able to gain ad- 
mittance; in any event, they at least can 
see what he says as he talks. 

“The principal cities of the entire 
world will doubtless be on the qui vive, 
and in attune with the radio apparatus of 
the American Society of Scientific Re- 
search tomorrow night. 

“Mr. Jack Emmert and party are even 
now en route from San Diego via airship, 
but he requests as an especial favor, that 
no demonstration be made upon his ar- 
rival in Chicago, as he wishes to conserve 
his strength so as to give the public his 
best effort on the morrow.” 

The following day there was but one 
topic — Jack Emmert’s return. Busi- 


16 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


ness was at a standstill; the very atmos- 
phere was surcharged with expectancy! 

The evening of November the Second 
found every available seat occupied, and 
thousands had to be content with the ra- 
dioscope bulletins as was suggested by the 
“Chicago Enquirer.” 

The buzz of expectancy which pre- 
vailed throughout the vast hall having 
subsided to a profound stillness, Profes- 
sor Robert Townsend, presiding officer, 
prefaced his introductory speech as fol- 
lows: 

“Ladies and gentlemen — I have two 
distinct announcements to make, one of 
which will be received by our membership 
with sorrow! I regret to announce the 
deaths of our beloved members. Profes- 
sors Turner and Waldinger, whom it will 
be remembered (at least by the scientific 
world) were the principals in a debate be- 
fore this society, in this very room, just 
ten years ago tonight. 

“On that occasion, there was a very re- 
grettable difference in expressed opinion 
concerning inter-atomic phenomena on 
the part of these two stalwart champions 


THE AVIATOR*S RETURN 


17 


of their respective theories; the verdict 
having been given in favor of the hypoth- 
esis of Professor Turner, many of you 
will recall, so incensed Professor Wal- 
dinger, that he left the meeting in terrific 
anger, refusing to become reconciled with 
his opponent Turner, and vowing that he 
would yet demonstrate the absolute cor- 
rectness of his theories. A week later, 
both he and his ten-year-old daughter, 
Bessie, apparently vanished from the face 
of the earth. 

“Professor Turner remained with the 
society, contributing in many ways to- 
wards its scientific researches, and it was 
on such an errand that he accepted pas- 
sage on board the ‘America/ but, 
friends, he has not returned with the avi- 
ation party; but, as his death, as well as 
that of Professor Waldinger, is bound up 
in the narrative of the speaker of the 
evening, I will desist, and it is with un- 
usual pleasure that I call upon the hero 
of the hour, Mr. Jack Emmert, erstwhile 
lost aviator, who will now speak to us.” 

Jack Emmert unfolded his six-foot of 
length in response to this kindly introduc- 


18 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

tion, and stood calmly before that mam- 
moth assemblage. 

His was indeed an interesting person- 
ality — staunch, self-reliant, and withal 
modest in bearing — a clear, steady eye 
which fully comprehends what it sees, but 
as he is about to speak to us, we will re- 
frain from further description, for, as he 
speaks, we will learn to know him better. 

After the thunderous applause which 
had greeted his introduction had subsided, 
Mr. Jack Emmert regaled our ears with 
the following amazing story: 


CHAPTER II. 


The Mysterious Deflection. 

You will please pardon my reference 
to events prior to the vanishing of the 
good old air-ship “America,” but there 
may be those among your number to 
whom a slight refreshing of the memory 
will not come amiss. 

Last July Fourth I was signally hon- 
ored with a place in the International 
Aviation Race, and it was my peculiar 
privilege to defend the aerial prestige of 
our own dear land in its namesake, the 
“America.” 

While the pennant went to France, 
I most assuredly believe that the “Amer- 
ica” would have won the race easily, had 
it not been for the untoward events which 
beset us almost at the very outset, and 
of which I will make more detailed men- 
tion later on. 


19 


20 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


The “America” was indeed a beautiful 
and air-worthy craft — the peer of any, 
and superior to many. She was of the 
most approved tractor type, with ample 
engine capacity and an abundance of re- 
serve force; her spread of wing was fully 
three hundred and fifty feet, and approx- 
imately this same distance from propeller 
to stern. 

The pilot house had the usual forward 
position, but the most distinctive feature 
about her, was her counterbalancing plat- 
form device, triangular in shape; the apex 
of the triangle being near the rudder or 
back portion of the airship, and the base 
of the triangle coincident with the pilot 
house; a line drawn through the hub of 
the propeller forward to the apex of the 
triangle, would divide this platform into 
two equal or similar triangles, each being 
symmetrical with the remainder of the 
airship. 

This horizontal plane, or triangular 
platform, was very delicately balanced; 
being so constructed that any weight im- 
posed upon it either to the right or left 
of its center of symmetry, would, because 
of a slight rotating tendency, cause vanes 


THE MYSTERIOUS DEFLECTION 21 


extending laterally, to present a greater 
or less angle to the direction of flight, 
and thereby offset the temporarily dis- 
turbed equilibrium, with the result that a 
uniformly horizontal position of plat- 
form was maintained automatically, 
which made it possible for the passengers 
to move about at their pleasure without 
seriously hindering the progress of the 
airship. 

Back of the pilot house was another 
enclosure in which was installed the radio- 
scope apparatus. The entire platform 
was enclosed with hermetically sealed 
glass, which was necessary because of the 
extremely high speed for which she was 
built. 

I do not wish to importune you with 
further technicalities, but deemed it best 
to give you this brief description, so that 
you may feel more “at home” on board 
the “America.” 

As the presiding officer has already 
intimated, it was my very good fortune 
to have been favored by the presence of 
the late Professor Turner, and while you 
have lost in him a fellow member, you 


22 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


must remember that I am bereft of a very 
intimate friend and companion. 

Professor Turner, Radio Engineer 
George Kepner, Mechanician Fred 
Brown, my “kid” brother Willie, Ebony, 
the cook (Eb for short) , and Master Wil- 
lie’s dog, “Radio,” comprised the person- 
nel, and I might add, all of whom (save 
the late Professor Turner, of course) are 
in this audience tonight — even to the dog 
“Radio.” 

(Radio, at the first mention of his 
name, had pricked up his ears in close at- 
tention, but at its second mentioning, 
came bounding forward towards the plat- 
form, barking uproariously in utter disre- 
gard for the conventions of the occasion, 
but was quietly and firmly suppressed by 
several of the more alert ushers, very 
much to his dogship’s chagrin. The but 
half suppressed titter which went in a 
wave about the hall because of this diver- 
sion having subsided, Mr. Jack Emmert 
continued. ) 

We were making fine progress until 
shortly after having left the first Inter- 
national Float, but from that time on, our 
troubles began. 


THE MYSTERIOUS DEFLECTION 23 

A passing word about these floats 
would be apropos at this time, as they had 
just been instituted (an American inven- 
tion) by joint contributions, and joint 
maintenance, on the part of all of the 
principal countries of the world, and 
without which, a trip across the Pacific 
ocean to Yokohama could not have been 
seriously contemplated. 

They were three in number, and their 
decks were perfectly devoid of obstruc- 
tions of all kinds, so as to facilitate the 
safe landing of air-craft (their sole pur- 
pose). The major portions of these 
floats were normally submerged so as to 
present as little wind resistance as pos- 
sible. The entire mechanism and crew 
were below the water line, and in the 
event of extremely severe storms, it was 
possible to submerge them completely, 
save a periscope extension which was ever 
and always on the lookout. 

Their sole duty, as before stated, was 
to maintain as nearly as possible a con- 
stant latitude and longitude. Float 
number one had its location arbitrarily 
fixed at thirty-five degrees north latitude. 


24 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


and longitude one hundred sixty, west 
from Greenwich. 

Shortly after having left float number 
one, our speed indicator told us that we 
were bowling along at the rate of three 
hundred and fifty and three-tenths miles 
per hour, when Kepner emerged from the 
aisleway connecting the radioscope room 
and the pilot house, saying that San 
Francisco was endeavoring to communi- 
cate with us. 

I found that the radioscope bulletin 
was asking, “How goes it with the ‘Amer- 
ica?’ We have not heard from you for 
about an hour.” 

Our sending apparatus was put into 
commission by the adjustment of several 
levers and Kepner replied, “Everything 
O. K. — we are averaging over three hun- 
dred and fifty miles per hour; how does 
this speed compare with that of our 
friends, ‘the competitors?’ ” 

“Your speed exceeds that of your near- 
est rival by fully ten miles per hour,” was 
the reply flashed on the bulletin. 

“Hurrah for the ‘America,’ ” shouted 
Willie. “Fine,” ejaculated the Profes- 
sor. Kepner was too busy to express his 


THE MYSTERIOUS DEFLECTION 25 

sentiments, while Eb’s dusky face fairly 
exuded his delight — even Radio barked 
his approval of the good news. 

J ust then Brown called me to the pilot 
house and complained that he was having 
difficulty in maintaining the prescribed 
course. ‘‘Something has gone wrong 
with the steering device; you take the 
wheel while I look her over.’’ 

While Brown was gone I experienced 
the same difficulties he had complained of, 
and found that the “America” could only 
be kept in her due westerly course with 
ever-increasing difficulty, there being a 
persistent southerly trend. 

Brown returned in several minutes, 
having failed to discover the trouble, and 
I relinquished the wheel to him again, 
whereat he turned to me in wide-eyed as- 
tonishment! “It’s getting worse and 
worse all the time; the southerly trend is 
stronger now than when I first called 
you!” 

I summoned the others to the pilot 
house and imparted this dubious news. 
“Have you gone over the mechanism 
thoroughly?” inquired the Professor, and 


26 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

on receiving my affirmative answer, was 
nonplussed ! 

“Maybe we have struck one of those 
‘holes in the air,’ ” ventured Willie, to 
which suggestion there was vouchsafed no 
reply, and Willie turned to Radio for 
consolation, and received a wag of the 
tail in sympathy. 

I took the wheel again, and found that 
Brown’s statement was only too true, 
and we resolved to report this to San 
Francisco at once. All hands (save 
Brown) returned to the radioscope and 
we were surprised to see only a faint sig- 
nal thereon, though still legible. It was 
saying, “Let us hear from you again.” 
Kepner replied to this, “We are having 
difficulty with our steering device, and 
besides we can scarcely read your sig- 
nals.” 

San Francisco replied to this, “Your 
signals also are very faint; suggest that 
you inspect your sending apparatus.” 
Kepner flashed back, “Everything in 
first class working order, apparently, as 
far as mechanism is concerned.” San 
Francisco’s reply to this was absolutely 
illegible, and we sent back, “Can’t read 


THE MYSTERIOUS DEFLECTION 27 

you at all now; troubles are piling up 
thick and fast, and we are decidedly out 
of our prescribed course; fear we will 
be compelled to abandon the race.” The 
reply to this (if any) did not appear on 
the bulletin. 

Kepner anxiously tested out his radio 
apparatus and turned to us with a very 
puzzled expression, “There is absolutely 
nothing wrong with the workings of the 
apparatus that I can discover; I for one 
am completely ‘stumped.’ ” 

“Look! The bulletin!” exclaimed the 
Professor at this juncture, and we were 
surprised to see faintly thereon, a message 
signed, Hawaiian Islands. The message 
read, “San Francisco is asking us to com- 
municate with you; can you read us?” 
Kepner instantly replied, “We lost San 
Francisco some time ago; tell them that 
some strange force seems to — ’’ and just 
then, “bang” went the lever, and we could 
neither send nor receive. 

Consternation prevailed aboard the 
“America;” we were oppressed with an 
utter sense of helplessness; Kepner was 
simply dumfounded, and refused to 


28 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

abandon his efforts towards further com- 
munication, but without avail! 

A new complication had now arisen, in 
that a terrific wind and electrical storm 
had sprung up, and it was with difficulty 
that we were able to shout our conversa- 
tion ; dense clouds completely encom- 
passed us, and the wind fairly shrieked 
through the suspending rods of the 
“America.” 

We induced Kepner to leave his appa- 
ratus for a time, and the pilot house be- 
came a place of council. Willie and Eb 
were almost terror stricken, and had 
sought refuge in the farthest corner of 
the radioscope room. 

Brown, having been under dire stress 
for some hours, we all took turns at the 
wheel; all attempts to overcome the mys- 
terious southerly trend having been aban- 
doned at the approach of the storm. The 
exchanges of thunderbolts between banks 
of clouds became very violent at times, 
and we began to fear for the ultimate 
safety of the “America” and her passen- 
gers. 

It was now about the time we should 
have reached the second float and obtain 


THE MYSTERIOUS DEFLECTION 29 


supplies had we not been so mysteriously 
diverted from our course, and it was with 
many misgivings that Brown sounded the 
gasoline tank. '‘We have just four 
inches of gasoline left!” exclaimed Brown 
and it was with blanched faces. that we re- 
ceived this information, as we all knew 
that four inches was barely sufficient to 
last us two hours more at most. We 
should have had at least ten inches re- 
maining at this time, as this was the usual 
reserve figured on. 

We decided at once to inflate the emer- 
gency canvas boat strapped beneath the 
platform, so that if it came to the worst, 
we could trust ourselves to the mercies of 
the ocean, rather than the less stable air, 
as we could there at least drift aimlessly, 
while, without motive power, the air 
would refuse to sustain us. 

Brown set the air pumps a-going, and 
the progress of the "America” was there- 
after materially lessened on account of 
this divertment of power to the pumps. 

We had not as yet taken Willie and 
Eb into our confidence as to the real 
gravity of the situation, having deemed it 
best to allow them to remain in ignorance 


so THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

for the time being, as nothing could be 
gained by telling them of our fears at this 
time. 

Another sounding of the tank was 
made, and there remained but two and 
one-half inches of gasoline; but we noted 
with satisfaction that the canvas boat 
suspended beneath the platform was 
nearly inflated to its fullest extent. We 
determined therefore to cast our lot with 
that of the sea within the hour, and there 
were many things to be done before 
finally casting off. 

The Professor busied himself in secur- 
ing our location, which after checking the 
second time, he carefully jotted down in 
his note-book, as follows: South latitude 
five degrees; west longitude one hundred 
and sixty-five degrees, which meant that 
the course of the “America” had been so 
diverted that we had traversed forty de- 
grees of latitude, while our westward or 
longitudinal progress had been only five 
degrees, since having left float number 
one. 

Kepner and Eb were commissioned to 
see to the transfer of provisions, water, 
utensils, rifles, automatics, ammunition. 


THE MYSTERIOUS DEFLECTION 31 


fishing tackle, etc., of which we had for- 
tunately an abundant store. Willie saw 
to wearing apparel, bedding, etc., while 
Brown and I gave our undivided atten- 
tion to the steering of the airship itself. 

The fury of the storm had abated con- 
siderably, but being practically without 
gasoline, we knew that the time to break 
away had at last arrived. The parachute 
arrangement provided for just such an 
emergency as this, having been found in 
perfect condition, the Professor called 
out, “Everybody here?” and all being ac- 
counted for. Brown pulled the lever 
which automatically dissevered the can- 
vas life-boat from the airship. 

The “America” seemed to rise swiftly 
above, but we knew that in reality we 
were falling rapidly. Would the para- 
chute work? would it* ever unfold? but, 
unfold it did, and without any appreci- 
able shock to the occupants of the boat. 

The “America” was hidden from our 
sight by the close proximity of the huge 
canopy of the parachute, and doubtless 
was plodding along as before, as Brown 
had taken the precaution to lash the wheel 
before leaving. 


32 


THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


We were now probably about one 
thousand feet above the ocean, and we 
eagerly scanned the horizon for some evi- 
dences of possible succor, but a blank 
wall of sea encountered our gaze every- 
where; we finally descended gently to the 
sea below ; the only trouble we had of any 
consequence was to avoid becoming en- 
meshed with the parachute. However, 
we succeeded in clearing ourselves from 
its entrammeling embrace. 

It was five o’clock in the afternoon. 


CHAPTER III. 


Steam Mountain Island. 

The sea was still running high, and our 
canvas boat was tossed about like a play- 
thing, but it was fortunate for us that the 
wind had lost a measure of its fury; now 
and again we were dangerously near get- 
ting into the trough of the sea, and it was 
only with the greatest difficulty that we 
managed to keep her headed towards the 
wind. We were drifting aimlessly, and 
were acting merely on the defensive. 
Darkness was approaching rapidly. Wil- 
lie and Eb were fast asleep; with Brown 
on the watch, the Professor, Kepner and 
myself discussed the situation in low 
tones till far into the night. 

Morning dawned bright and clear; the 
rough handling which we had received at 
the hands of the elements but a few short 
hours previously, seemed very unreal in 
the light of the calm aspect of the sea. 

33 


34, THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

There was a very gentle breeze blow- 
ing, however, and the sun was just rising 
from the sea like a huge ball of fire. We 
installed our little mast and sail, which 
until now had been allowed to remain in 
the bottom of the boat, and our little 
barque responded nobly to the breeze, 
and we pointed her in a southwesterly di- 
rection, as we had decided during our 
night’s vigil that we probably were near- 
er the shores of Australia than that of any 
other land. 

Eb busied himself with the preparation 
of our frugal breakfast — frugal because 
of precaution rather than from present 
necessity, as we did not know for what 
length of time we might be compelled to 
exist under these or very similar condi- 
tions. How thankful we were that we 
had plenty to eat and drink, and we fully 
realized that our lot was not nearly so bad 
as it might have been. Someone was al- 
ways on the watch for a glimpse of a sail 
or other evidence of possible succor. 

Willie was the life of the party and 
had us laughing at his inconsequential 
remarks and antics much of the time; so, 
in spite of our gloomy prospects, the 


STEAM MOUNTAIN ISLAND 


35 


party was not entirely devoid of good 
cheer. 

We were forced to conclude that we 
were far from the highways of the sea, as 
we had not caught even a passing glimpse 
of a sail or funnel on the wide expanse of 
the horizon. We had experienced noth- 
ing like real hardship as yet, and the can- 
vas boat was making very fair progress 
in spite of having been handicapped with 
such a diminutive mast and sail. 

Towards the middle of the afternoon 
we met with our first accident. Willie 
and Radio had been frolicking about in a 
rather reckless manner. Eh constituting 
an appreciative audience of one, when 
he uttered a terrified yell, exclaiming, 
‘‘Marsa Jack, Radio am done fall ober- 
bowd.” There wasn’t a person on board 
who would not have risked a great deal 
for Radio, for we had all become very 
much attached to him, but Brown’s quick 
action got the best of us ; having divested 
himself of his coat, shoes and hat with 
lightning-like rapidity, he plunged over- 
board, heedless of any sharks which might 
have been lurking about. As soon as we 
had seen Brown’s purpose, we hastily 


S6 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

lowered the sail and brought the boat 
about. By this time Radio was some 
fifty or seventy-yards in the wake of the 
boat; Brown occasionally called out en- 
couragingly to Radio, and we soon had 
him safe and sound on board again. If 
ever a dog wagged his thanks, Radio was 
that dog; and though perfectly innocent 
of any offense, there was a scattering 
among his sympathizers as he shook the 
salt water from his shaggy coat. 

Willie explained that one of Radio’s 
pet diversions had been to leap from side 
to side of the boat, and that this time 
when Radio had jumped, he had “slid 
off,” the canvas side of the boat failing 
as a support as it was wont to do. 

The overboard episode paled into in- 
significance as we learned of this, as it in- 
dicated that the canvas boat was losing 
some of its original buoyancy. “There 
must be a slow leak somewhere,” ventured 
Willie, and even though this was a some- 
what self-evident remark, we acted on the 
suggestion and made a very thorough 
search, but without avail; the flabbiness 
of that side of the boat persistently defied 
all of our attempts towards a remedy, and 


STEAM MOUNTAIN ISLAND 


37 


as the boat began to list to one side we 
knew that it behooved us to reach some 
land at the earliest possible moment; so, 
thereafter we gave our almost undivided 
attention to availing ourselves of every 
stitch of our small sail, and to maintain 
two lookouts continuously, instead of 
one. 

At about four-thirty in the afternoon, 
the wind began to show signs of freshen- 
ing, and we were sailing along famously; 
but to what destination? — that was the 
all-absorbing question; time only would 
decide this. The lack of buoyancy of our 
boat had become quite apparent, and the 
outcome would surely be disastrous did 
we not soon discover land of some de- 
scription. 

Suddenly, Brown called, “What do 
you make that out to be. Jack?” at the 
same time pointing in a direction almost 
identical with the course of the boat. All 
eyes were eagerly turned in the direction 
indicated, and there, we dimly saw what 
appeared to be a huge cloud rising ver- 
tically from out the sea! It might have 
been thirty, or even fifty miles distant; 
we could not determine which, for we had 


38 


THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


nothing in the foreground to base a per- 
spective upon; however, as we progressed 
the cloud column became more clearly de- 
fined, and finally Brown, who had been 
gazing very intently through a pair of 
powerful binoculars, exclaimed, “Land! 
I see land! The cloud column seems to 
be resting upon it!” The glasses were 
passed from hand to hand, and it was 
Willie’s sharp eyes and lively imagina- 
tion which discovered that the seeming 
cloud was in reahty a column of hot steam 
emanating from a volcanic mountain ! 

Willie was just in the act of passing 
the glasses to Kepner for verification, 
when we were all pitched violently for- 
ward into the bottom of the boat — so in- 
tent had we been in watching the strange 
phenomenon of the steam column, that a 
storm had stolen upon us unawares. The 
boom swung violently around, barely 
missing our heads, and for a brief mo- 
ment we thought that the mast and all 
would go overboard. Brown’s resource- 
fulness again came to the rescue, and we 
soon had her under control, but were be- 
ing driven “dead ahead” towards the 


STEAM MOUNTAIN ISLAND 


39 


newly discovered land at a tremendous 
rate. 

It was all we could do to keep from 
being carried overboard by the huge 
masses of spray which at times complete- 
ly enveloped us. Brown, with the assist- 
ance of Kepner and the Professor, had 
managed to take in the sail; conversation 
was out of the question, our voices being 
completely drowned by the shrieking of 
the wind. 

Our little barque was scudding before 
the storm, but nearer, ever nearer, the 
land! 

Soon we discovered breakers ahead, 
and it was with fear and trembling that 
we awaited our fate; nothing could be 
done which had not already been done, 
and we were as mere puppets in the hands 
of fate. A huge wave larger than the 
rest, gripped us in a last supreme effort 
to overwhelm us, and we rose high on its 
crest — would we descend with it on the 
reefs, or beyond them? — the suspense 
was agonizing, and to our terrorized 
imaginations it seemed that we would 
never descend again ! It was like a sculp- 
tured billow, but descend we did and safe- 


40 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

ly on the farther side of the perilous reefs. 
The frenzied rage of the waters as they 
lashed themselves in impotent fury at our 
escape, sounded like music in our ears, as 
the greater their disappointment, the 
greater our sense of security. 

The waters of the lagoon were calm 
only by way of comparison — they were 
still running mountain high, and the 
booming of the billows as they reached 
the shore could be distinctly heard above 
the now diminishing din of the breakers 
just passed. This booming soon devel- 
oped into what seemed to be a sullen con- 
tinuous roar, becoming louder and louder 
each moment — then we were gripped by a 
swift moving billow which scudded us 
high up on what in the semi-darkness ap- 
peared to be a comparatively smooth 
beach. Drenched to the skin, and thor- 
oughly weary, almost to the point of ex- 
haustion, we succeeded in dragging our- 
selves and the boat out of the reach of 
the hungry waters, and found a few mo- 
ments’ respite before taking any partic- 
ular note of our immediate surroundings. 

We held a brief consultation and de- 
cided to bivouac for the night. Sleep 


STEAM MOUNTAIN ISLAND 


41 


was out of the question for most of the 
party, and a more miserable lot of casta- 
ways would have been hard to imagine. 
The night, though almost interminably 
long, finally gave way to the insistence of 
the light. All eyes, as with one accord, 
were turned in the direction of the vol- 
canic mountain with its mysterious can- 
opy of steam which ascended higher, and 
ever higher, until lost in the zenith! 





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CHAPTER IV. 


Shale Rock Cavern. 

The volcanic peak we judged to be 
from ten to twelve miles distant, and 
fully ten thousand feet in height. The 
steam column was probably about two 
miles in diameter at its base, but widened 
out as it ascended, but its density did not 
diminish in anything like inverse propor- 
tion. 

“What an astonishing freak of na- 
ture,’’ was Professor Turner’s comment. 
‘T never heard of such a phenomenon be- 
fore, and doubtless we are the discoverers 
of what may yet prove to be an astound- 
ing bit of news for the scientific world.” 
This was certainly taking a lot for grant- 
ed; how could we in our deplorable con- 
dition even hope to be the bearers of news 
to civilization? However, we could ill 
afford to spend our time in this manner, 
as we had some very practical and real- 
43 


44 . THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

istic problems to solve — to pass another 
night after this fashion was altogether 
out of the question, so after partaking 
sparingly of our cold and drenched pro- 
visions, we divided our efforts — Brown 
and Eb set out to find some drift-wood 
for a much needed fire; Kepner and Wil- 
lie wandered down the gravel beach in 
search of shell fish, while the Professor 
and I went in quest of a suitable place 
for the coming night’s shelter. 

Paralleling the beach at this point, and 
probably about half a mile distant, rose 
a precipitous mountain chain, rearing it- 
self higher to our right until it merged 
into the steam mountain. Between the 
shore and the base of this mountain chain, 
or the half mile mentioned, there was a 
comparatively level tract, absolutely 
guiltless of any manner of vegetation 
whatever; as far as we could judge there 
was not even a blade of grass to be seen 
on this inhospitable shore; even the crest 
of the mountain chain bore not a vestige 
or a sign of trees or shrubs; all was des- 
olate and bleak beyond the imagination 
even. 

As the Professor and I proceeded, the 


SHALE ROCK CAVERN 


45 


elevation increased very slightly, and the 
rocky abandon became more and more 
manifest. Huge shales of rock lay tum- 
bled fantastically about, being only par- 
tially imbedded in the fine shale debris 
and sand. This fact together with their 
almost universal flatness, and diversified 
angles, formed many a nook and cranny, 
almost any of which would have made a 
very passable shelter from both wind and 
rain. 

Winding our way in and out among 
these, we finally selected a sort of cavern 
formed by the junction of two of these 
huge lean-to slabs situated at the base of 
a high cliff. These immense shales of 
rock were edgewise to the cliff, the one 
leaning at an angle of about thirty de- 
grees, and the other at approximately 
sixty degrees; their tops were crunched 
together some fifteen feet above. The 
third side was blocked by the cliff itself, 
while the floor or bottom consisted of fine 
white sand into which the sides or lean-to 
slabs were imbedded, we knew not how 
deep. With just a little effort and ma- 
terial ready at hand, we saw that we 
could easily close that side facing the sea 


46 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

as well. “Shale Rock Cavern” we judged 
to be about fifty feet above the sea level. 

The Professor and I returned to camp, 
and were gratified to see that Brown and 
Eb had been successful in their search for 
drift-wood, as was evidenced by a glow- 
ing fire they had built between two handy 
boulders, and best of all, the savory odor 
of a stew of some kind saluted our nos- 
trils. We found that Kepner and Wil- 
lie had established themselves as excellent 
providers, in that they had returned laden 
down with several varieties of shell fish, 
and glowing reports of practically inex- 
haustible supplies of these as well as other 
varieties available for our future use. 

All in all our several successes had put 
us in a much better frame of mind, and 
in any event we were soon partaking of 
Eb’s concoction with great avidity. 

“What I would like to know,” said 
Kepner, “is whether this beach is a por- 
tion of some main-land or that of an 
island.” The Professor gravely replied 
to this thf^t of course that thought was up- 
permost in the minds of us all, but that it 
was impossible to determine at present, 
owing to the barrier in front of us, and 


SHALE ROCK CAVERN 


47 


furthermore, it was doubtful if we could 
determine this much mooted question 
from the crest of the range, since even 
then “Steam Mountain” would block our 
view. 

“I just hope it is an island,” said Wil- 
lie, whose mind was still fresh with the 
details of adventure stories he had read. 

“We have sufficient time left, I believe, 
to scale the mountain ridge, and I pro- 
pose that we make the ascent at once and 
as we pass in that direction we will show 
you the result of our excursion, and we 
hope that you will be pleased with your 
prospective domicile,” said the Professor. 

While preparations were being made 
for the proposed trip, Radio, intuitively 
scenting an adventure, was romping 
about, partly in anticipation, and wholly 
in ecstasy. 

Eb did not seem particularly enthusi- 
astic about the prospective climbing of 
“Blue Ridge,” so we left him behind to 
watch our effects. No evidences of human 
visitation to this inhospitable looking land 
had been seen, but this fact would scarce- 
ly be considered sufficient indication that 
such was not the case, as we had explored 


48 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

nothing beyond a radius of a mile or so 
from the point where our boat was cast 
upon the shore. 

Willie and Radio were already far 
ahead of us, and were working off a little 
of their surplus energy in playing hide 
and seek among the boulders — an ideal 
spot for such a diversion. 

All were amazed at the marvelous in- 
tricacy through which we were wending 
our way, now and again we had to climb 
over a huge prostrate slab, and then 
again through narrow avenues which 
would terminate as abruptly as they 
started — a veritable labyrinth in fact. 
The characteristic thing, however, was the 
almost universal levelness of the soil con- 
sisting of fine shale debris and a liberal 
mixture of clear white sand, out of which 
projected these slabs of rock; it was like 
a huge dilapidated, long-forgotten grave- 
yard, marking the burying place of some 
gigantic race. 

“Shale Rock Cavern” was now immedi- 
ately ahead of us, and the Professor and 
I were immensely pleased to note the en- 
thusiastic reception given our discovery; 
Kepner, in particular, became very volu- 


SHALE ROCK CAVERN 


49 


minous in its praise. Brown’s practical 
eye and constructive trend of mind saw 
at a glance what a commodious and se- 
cure retreat this would prove to be, and 
declared then and there his intention to 
remain and fix it up suitable for occupan- 
cy. ‘‘Between Eb and myself we will have 
the place quite home like by the time you 
will have returned this evening.” 

We knew from past experience that it 
was useless to try to dissuade him from 
a fixed purpose, so shouldering our few 
effects in the shape of guns, water can- 
teens, several coils of rope, etc., we be- 
gan our ascent of “Blue Ridge.” 

We did not encounter much difficulty 
in selecting a place for our footing, but 
whether the place so selected was secure 
or not, was another question. The rock, 
slightly oily and slaty in nature, would 
crumble on the slightest provocation; but 
there was running through it, at random, 
streaks of harder strata, and we soon 
became quite adept in choosing our foot- 
ing. 

The eminence was not sheer by any 
means, but averaged at least sixty de- 
grees. We were fully an hour and a half 


50 


THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


in making the climb, but rested on several 
occasions on some convenient ledge. We 
gained the summit, however, and oh ! 
what a relief to catch even a distant 
glimpse of some living growing thing! 
Directly ahead of us, at about a quarter 
of a mile distance, trees and shrubbery 
were much in evidence, but all along the 
crest proper for this approximate quarter 
of a mile, it had the same baldness char- 
acteristic of its sides and bottom. 

To our right, the mountain ridge 
sloped more or less gently upward until 
it blended into the snow-capped sides of 
“Steam Mountain,” miles distant. The 
trees immediately in the foreground made 
it impossible for the vision to extend any 
great distance. 

We directed our course straight ahead, 
as this seemed to hold the greatest prom- 
ise, and so wended our way down a little 
gully for another quarter of a mile. A 
dense growth of underbrush almost de- 
barred our way at times, but we persisted 
till suddenly, almost magically, we were 
in the open again! 

I cannot begin to do justice to the mar- 
velous beauty of the scene which so sud- 


SHALE ROCK CAVERN 


51 


denly broke upon us! We were upon a 
sort of plateau, only an acre or so in ex- 
tent, fairly matted with a luxuriant 
growth of grass. It seemed that the 
whole thing had been staged for our es- 
pecial benefit; we moved forward to the 
very edge of the little plateau and gazed 
down a sheer drop of at least eight hun- 
dred feet. The face of this precipice 
was really not sheer — it was more than 
that! The top edge where we were 
standing projected beyond the base of 
the cliff very remarkably. 

Our view was unobstructed, and we 
could see for miles in all directions (save 
for the ridge at our backs). We seemed 
to be standing on a sort of pulpit or gi- 
gantic step which was thrust from the 
side of a huge amphitheatre. Straight in 
front of us .was the eight hundred foot 
abyss, and beyond and still further down 
than the base of the cliff, the land sloped 
gradually until it blended into the sea. 
Concavity was the dominant feature — 
the shore line in front of us, but in the far 
distance, was concave; the great area be- 
tween this shore and “Blue Ridge” was 
concave, broken only at the point where 



HIGH ROCK 



SHALE ROCK CAVERN 


53 


we were standing. The area between 
our present position and “Steam Moun- 
tain” was concave. 

We had a much better view of “Steam 
Mountain” than at any time previously. 
To the extreme left, the land gradually 
diminished in elevation until it appar- 
ently thinned out into, a marshy tract 
practically at sea level, but miles distant. 

We could not yet determine whether 
this land was that of an island, as “Steam 
Mountain” obstructed our view in that 
direction. Taking more particular note 
of our immediate surroundings, we dis- 
covered that there was a large pool of 
water at the base of “High Rock” and as 
the water problem was still unsolved, we 
retraced our steps to where this small 
plateau joined the general slope of “Blue 
Ridge,” and descended its slope along the 
side of “High Rock” to the water at its 
base. It was fairly gushing from be- 
neath the cliff, almost like the emerging 
of a subterranean stream. We found it 
clear, cool and refreshing, so there passed 
from the realm of doubt the problem of 
fresh water. 

Each of the party having filled his can- 


54 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

teen, we then started back towards camp. 
While we were repassing through the 
gully or diminutive ravine connecting the 
crest of “Blue Ridge” with “High Rock” 
Kepner and Willie had each been success- 
ful in bagging a couple of quail which 
had startled us as they whirred from their 
bushy retreats. These birds were the 
very first evidence of animated life we 
had seen since having left camp that 
morning, save of course, the lazy, lofty, 
soaring and gyrating of an occasional 
eagle or vulture in the far distance. 

The descent of the sea side of “Blue 
Ridge” was made without any mishap, 
and in much less time than it had taken 
to climb it, so that we arrived in camp 
on schedule time. 

Brown had successfully closed that 
side of “Shale Rock Cavern” which faced 
the sea, except a comparatively small 
opening, just sufficient to give us an 
easy entrance. Eb had brought every- 
thing from “Refuge Beach,” save the 
canvas boat, not even forgetting the para- 
chute envelope. 

At the sight of the quait held tempt- 
ingly aloft by Kepner and Willie, Eb 


SHALE ROCK CAVERN 


55 


went into ecstasies of delight, and hustled 
about to add them to our menu. 

A roaring fire was a-going within 
“Shale Rock Cavern;” a slight natural 
depression or crevasse in the cliff side 
made an ideal fireplace; a smaller and 
narrower vertical extension of this same 
rift or crevasse, also made a good egress 
for the smoke, and produced a splendid 
draft. 

The evenings were inclined to be a little 
chilly, and we formed a picturesque 
group within “Shale Rock Cavern” as we 
partook of the appetizing meal prepared 
by our faithful Eh. 

Now that we have them all together, 
and in repose for the time being, a more 
intimate acquaintance will not come 
amiss. Professor Turner was of course 
the senior member of the party — about 
forty-eight years of age, tall and lean, 
very grave and dignified in bearing — and 
he had a right to be, as there were few 
men better known to the scientific world, 
or to whom was accorded the recognition 
of signal achievement in physical research 
than he. We all learned to love and re- 


56 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

spect him, despite his rather austere man- 
ners. 

Kepner was a young man probably 
about twenty-four years of age, a free 
lance, keen and alert at all times, very 
handsome, even to a degree beyond the 
average; a young man who would be a 
great success with the ladies, but, alas! 
our party was devoid of such. He was a 
graduate of Cornell University, having 
also taken a post-graduate course in that 
institution, as well as special courses in 
several technical schools of repute. An 
intelligent, well balanced young man, and 
a valuable asset to our party. 

Brown — well. Brown was simply 
Brown, that is all — an average man of 
mechanical turn of mind, with nothing to 
distinguish him save his extreme taciturn- 
ity. He seldom made a verbal reply 
when a nod or shake of his head would 
suffice, and was never known to volunteer 
a merely casual remark; it had to be 
something really worth while to elicit a 
voluntary comment from him. We had 
dubbed him the silent mechanician. 

My brother Willie was about sixteen 
years old — full of life and action, inces- 


SHALE ROCK CAVERN 


57 


santly on the move, just brimming over 
with good fellowship towards all; an apt 
student for his years, but a little prone to 
form premature conclusions, and in this 
he was a natural foil to the mature wis- 
dom of Professor Turner. 

Eb (short for Ebony), our negro cook 
and man of all work, was a short, stocky 
individual with long arms, huge hands, 
and an immense girth of chest — strong 
far beyond his own knowledge of the fact. 
Eb was as black as the proverbial “ace of 
spades,” but for all that, he was not a 
colored man; for, you see, he was born 
that way. 

He was good nature personified, and 
when particularly well pleased, would 
display a row of ivories to be envied. He 
was loyalty itself, and his devotion to the 
rest of the party was a valuable asset in- 
deed. We generally took him into our 
discussions and consultations concerning 
the general welfare of the party, and not 
a man among us was even inclined to dis- 
criminate against him on account of his 
color. Eb in his turn did not presume 
upon this fact, which went to prove that 
he was possessed of some considerable de- 


58 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

gree of wisdom along with his many other 
creditable traits. 

We were gathered about the fire, save 
Willie and Radio, who were romping 
about rather boisterously for our some- 
what limited quarters, when suddenly we 
were startled by a rattle and a crash; we 
turned almost with one accord to see what 
Willie and Radio had been up to, where- 
at Willie rather ungrammatically called 
out, “We ain’t done nothin,’ have we. Ra- 
dio?” “Lawd a-Massy! look aht mah 
pahns an’ everything, a-stickin to dat 
wall!” Eb’s eyes were fairly bulging out 
with terror, and sure enough, right up 
against the side of our cavern at a height 
of six feet or more above the sand floor, 
we saw our small assortment of kitchen 
utensils just as though hung there! I 
felt a steady tug at my trousers pocket, 
and turned to my neighbor inquiringly, 
but he was guiltless ! I crammed my 
hand into my pocket and pulled forth my 
knife and a bunch of keys, when they 
were wrenched from my grasp and 
roughly catapulted over to the wall, and 
took a place among the flighty utensils ! 

Professor Turner approached the wall 


SHALE ROCK CAVERN 


59 


and seized hold of the handle of the fry- 
ing pan, and to his utter astonishment as 
well as the rest of us, he could not wrench 
it loose ! I approached rather gingerly, I 
must confess, and recovered my knife and 
keys, but with some little effort, but was 
glad to surrender them again, as they 
would not stay “put.” 

The Professor at this juncture tied a 
string to one of the smaller utensils, a 
fork, if I remember correctly, and then 
grasping hold of the other end of the 
string he pulled gently, firmly and ob- 
servantly. The fork parted from the 
wall with seeming reluctance, but when 
free, it did not fall to the ground, but 
rather remained in the air, straining at 
the string; the Professor then walked 
from one end of the cavern to the other, 
followed by the rest of us, all agape. 
Then, he approached the entrance to the 
cavern, passed out into the brilliant moon- 
light ; the fork was still acting in the same 
unaccountable manner; it seemed to be 
accompanying him as he walked ; then, as 
he purposely changed his direction, it 
seemed to be leading him. “Don’t yo’ 
go, Marsa Turnah, doan yo’ go! De 


60 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

Debbil himself am sho a-leadin’ yo, Mar- 
sa. Please doan yo’ go!” 

We were all closely following the Pro- 
fessor, mystified beyond measure; poor 
old Eb’s teeth were fairly chattering, and 
it wasn’t because of the cold either. 

The Professor, having stopped, firmly 
brought the hand holding the string up to 
the height of his eye and sighted over it — 
it pointed directly towards the very top 
of “Steam Mountain!” 

The Professor exclaimed at this mo- 
ment, “Watch!” then he let go of his end 
of the string and there happened — only 
this — the fork and string had disappeared 
into the darkness without a sound! 


CHAPTER V. 


The Circumnavigation of the Island. 

We re-entered “Shale Rock Cavern” 
too mystified to speak! blank astonish- 
ment was depicted on every countenance 
— an astonishment which approximated 
consternation, in fact. The Professor was 
about to speak, when, with a clatter, our 
precious utensils dropped to the floor! 
Eb approached his culinary articles cau- 
tiously, but found that they were amen- 
able to ordinary handling, as was their 
wont to do, but it was with many mum- 
blings and sundry grunts of disapproval 
that he finally reclaimed them to the last 
one. 

“Steam Mountain,” said the Professor 
with visible agitation, “the ‘Steam Moun- 
tain’ is the culprit! But why this peri- 
odical attraction towards metals? Can it 
be that there is a mass of molten metal 
within yonder peak which has the proper- 
61 


62 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

ties of the old-time loadstone? But even 
so, why does it not exercise at least a 
slight influence now although its mass 
may have retreated far within the very 
bowels of the earth?” 

Needless to say, none of us had the 
temerity to attempt an answer, and it was 
equally evident that the Professor did not 
expect any reply. Thoroughly mystifled 
we turned in for the night, and soon all 
were in the land of dreams. I remember 
of having dreampt that I was being keel- 
hauled with endless gyrations through the 
inflnite space by a force emanating from 
nowhere in particular, and landing me 
just as definitely. 

On the morrow, as with one accord, 
we gazed long and earnestly at “Steam 
Mountain” as though she might by some 
responsive mood deign to reveal a mite of 
her secret, but her appearance, though a 
very unusual sight at best, was now quite 
normal. We continued to gaze for some 
time but without avail. The steam col- 
umm still majestically vaulted itself into 
the very heavens; the bleak, snow-capped 
sides had the same cold, forbidding aspect. 
We re-entered the cavern, and Eb ap- 


CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF ISLAND 6S 


proached his kitchen utensils cautiously, 
and to us in a manner which seemed ludi- 
crous in the extreme. The Professor did 
not join us in our small talk, but remained 
aloof in an abstracted frame of mind for 
hours. 

Kepner and Willie had scaled the 
“Blue Ridge,” taking their guns and a 
supply of ammunition with them, prom- 
ising to return by nightfall with some 
game if possible. Later on in the day 
the Professor, Brown and I discussed the 
problem of our future, and came to the 
conclusion that the most feasible thing to 
do at this time was to get our canvas boat 
into shape for a voyage of exploration 
down the shore in the direction of “Steam 
Mountain,” whose attraction had now be- 
come psychological as well as physical. 

The canvas boat was quite flat by this 
time, and the problem of its inflation was 
a serious one, as we had but an ordinary 
bicycle pump with which to do this, and 
we knew that it would be a slow and tedi- 
ous job, as we had discovered while still 
afloat on the ocean after having aban- 
doned the “America.” However, know- 
ing that there was really nothing else to 


64 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


do, we resolutely set about it, with the re- 
sult that by nightfall we had it very sat- 
isfactorily inflated. Eb with his wonder- 
ful strength and stamina, was of invalu- 
able aid. 

Kepner and Willie returned fairly 
laden down with game of half a dozen dif- 
ferent varieties, and several small ani- 
mals which somewhat resembled the com- 
mon American cotton-tail rabbit. 

They, according to Kepner’s account, 
had gone directly to the spring under 
“High Rock,” and from there had pene- 
trated the densely wooded section to the 
left and towards the lower portion of the 
island. They had found the vegetation 
to be quite variegated, and trees of mam- 
moth size were frequently encountered. 
None of the larger four-footed denizens 
of the forest were met with, but there 
were many evidences of their existence, 
and we were glad to know about this, as 
being forewarned was to be forearmed. 

Kepner and Willie fell eagerly in with 
our proposed plan of exploration via 
boat, and by dusk we had everything in 
readiness for an early start on the mor- 
row. 


CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF ISLAND 65 


Morning having duly arrived, we de- 
cided not to attempt to take all of our 
paraphernalia with us, so contented our- 
selves with only the lighter and most nec- 
essary articles, i. e., fresh water, guns, 
ammunition, fishing tackle, etc. We 
deemed it inadvisable to divide our party, 
so putting the balance of our effects, in- 
cluding our parachute envelope, safely 
within “Shale Rock Cavern,” we rolled a 
large slab in front of its single entrance, 
and launched the canvas boat. 

Our little sail was stepped; it respond- 
ed to the brisk breeze which prevailed, 
and we were at last en route to the vicin- 
ity of “Steam Mountain.” 

Along the shore, and paralleling it, 
about a mile or so distant, we noticed a 
line of reefs, but between these and the 
shore, the water was free from obstruc- 
tions; we remained within this enclosure 
or lagoon as long as it lasted, and by ten 
o’clock had progressed to within just a 
few miles of “Steam Mountain,” its 
frowning heights rising almost inconceiv- 
ably high and ever and always that pall 
of steam! 

“Blue Ridge” had increased in height 


66 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


as we advanced northward, and also with 
its increase in height, its sides became 
more and more precipitous, till finally the 
base proper of the peak itself reared 
sheer out of the sea to an elevation of 
fully three or four thousand feet. 

We were about to round the point and 
would soon know our fate; yes, we were 
indeed upon an island, for, where we had 
hoped to see land, the v/ide expanse of the 
Pacific Ocean only met our view ; the land 
had terminated quite abruptly, and we 
rounded the extreme northerly end of the 
island. 

Myriads of gulls and cliff habitues 
fairly dotted the practically vertical sides 
of the base of “Steam Mountain.” They 
were entirely unafraid at our approach; 
we did not disturb them, but proceeded on 
what we now knew to be the circumnavi- 
gation of the Island. 

Towards one o’clock in the afternoon 
the wind had freshened considerably, and 
we hugged the shore more closely in 
search of shelter from its ever increasing 
persistence, when suddenly we came to a 
narrow rift in the rocky cliffs, which at 
this point were in the neighborhood of 


CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF ISLAND 67 


five hundred feet in height. This cleft or 
vertical fissure was so narrow that it 
would have escaped our attention had we 
not been following the contour of the 
shore so closely; its sides were parallel 
from top to bottom, and only about fifty 
feet wide. It was much like a fissure in 
the rocky formation which in ages past, 
or by some upheaval had widened the 
original crevasse. It had the surface of 
the sea for its visible bottom; how far be- 
low its surface the cleft extended we, of 
course, had no way of determining. 

As we advanced through its tortuous 
windings, we found that the storm was 
unable to reach us. On account of the 
terrific depth of the crevasse in propor- 
tion to its width, the darkness was quite 
manifest; however, there was sufficient 
light to enable us to proceed, though 
gropingly, and within another half hour 
we emerged into an inland sea. 

This inland sea was probably not more 
than a mile wide at any point, and its 
shores (if they could be called such) were 
of the same character as the sides of the 
canyon through which we had just 


68 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


passed, being merely wider apart, that 
was all. 

As it was getting late in the afternoon 
we returned to the outside again, as the 
walls of the inland sea as well as those of 
the canyon did not seem to afford a foot- 
hold, much less accommodations for a 
camp. 

We had noticed on glancing down 
along the shore of the island previous to 
having diverted our boat into the canyon, 
that at probably a distance of three miles 
or so, the precipitous nature of the cliffs 
was much less apparent, even promising 
facilities for landing, so recollecting this, 
we made that point our objective before 
night should overtake us. 

On reaching the outside again, we 
found the sea still somewhat rough, but 
on the wane, and in a very short time we 
were able to beach the boat, and without 
any formalities other than a cold lunch, 
and the building of a roaring fire, we 
curled ourselves up in our respective 
blankets, and slept in the open. 

In the morning we embarked with the 
rising of the sun, purposing to cover as 
great a distance as possible. The sea was 


CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF ISLAND 69 

quite calm, only a slight swell giving evi- 
dence of the storm of yesterday. At 
about nine o’clock the shore dwindled 
down to an average of just a few feet 
above the sea, and so continued towards 
the lower end of the island as far as the 
eye could reach. 

The immediate foreground now being 
unobstructed, we had a splendid view of 
the “Blue Ridge” in the distance, but we 
were then viewing it from the opposite 
side of the island. A good general view 
of the topography of the island was ob- 
tained from this point. From this low 
side of the island the land swelled gently 
in front of us, only to melt into the “Blue 
Ridge;” and to our left to meet the foot- 
hills, and finally the ramparts of “Steam 
Mountain.” We could distinctly see 
“High Rock” projecting itself from the 
side of “Blue Ridge,” and viewed at this 
distance, it was hard to realize that its 
little pin point was in reality more than 
an acre in extent. 

Some ten or twelve miles further on, 
we came to the mouth of a considerable 
stream; its current was swift though 
silent, which indicated that it was deep. 


70 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


The river promised more in the way of 
shelter than did the stretch of shore be- 
yond, and as we had already made even 
greater progress than we had anticipated, 
we directed our boat up its enticing 
bosom. 

At a distance of about half a mile, huge 
trees began to line its banks; being so 
large as to almost form an arch overhead. 
The current became more rapid as we ad- 
vanced, and an occasional eddy, flurry, 
or even the suggestion of a ripple, warned 
us that its depth would probably diminish 
rapidly. Such proved to be the case, and 
after several portages, we abandoned the 
boat and proceeded on foot. 

The farther up the stream we pro- 
gressed, the shallower and more noisy be- 
came its waters; the fall now being prob- 
ably four or five feet to the mile. 

Kepner pleaded for an opportunity to 
try his luck as a fisherman, as the clear 
limpid waters, so diversified as to depth 
and direction of movement, looked to be 
an ideal spot for such a diversion; and 
besides, should he prove successful, Eb 
would quickly turn his trophies into good 
account. 


CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF ISLAND 71 


Selecting an overhanging rock, beneath 
and about which the waters were in a hes- 
itating mood, he cast his grasshopper 
bait in the very center of a deep pool, and 
presto! the bait was eagerly seized by a 
monstrously large brook trout which had 
fairly leaped to meet it, and along with 
him, half a dozen more which had caught 
sight of the bait from points of lesser ad- 
vantage. Kepner’s improvised rod was 
almost torn from his grasp, and then 
came a battle royal; the hook and line 
were very stout, and without a reel the 
combat was a short one, for the hook had 
been well taken, and in several minutes 
a four-pound speckled beauty laid palpi- 
tating on the mossy rocks. Kepner after 
some little difficulty in reclaiming his 
hook, cast in again with the same result, 
and in less than twenty minutes he had 
over a dozen to his credit. 

Eb had built a fire at the base of an 
overhanging cliff some thirty feet above 
our present position; to get to the little 
shelf he had selected, it was necessary to 
climb up an incline of loose boulders 
which formed the mouth of a forty-five 
degree gully or ravine which had its 


72 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


starting point at the top elevation of the 
ridge through which the river had cut its 
way at this point. 

Eh had almost inadvertently picked 
out the very best sort of a place for our 
night’s encampment. We had agreed 
that no matter how attractive a home we 
might be able to discover on this river, 
that it would nevertheless be too far into 
the interior to make it feasible; so we de- 
termined to return to our boat again in 
the morning, and carry out our primary 
object of circumnavigating the island. 

As nightfall approached, we heard 
many evidences of animal life in our im- 
mediate vicinity, and we took the precau- 
tion to gather an ample supply of dry 
brush, and even a few small logs or fallen 
tree trunks, which Brown and Eb had to- 
bogganed down the gully incline. 

Our camp, as before stated, was at the 
base of an overhanging cliff, probably 
fifty feet high or even more; the shelf - 
like rock on which we were encamped ex- 
tended horizontally towards the river, and 
then there was another drop of some 
thirty feet, so that the only place we could 
reach the gully, or inversely, the only 


CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF ISLAND 73 


point of approach to our encampment, 
was at a single point where the shelf met 
the vertical of the cliff backing us. 

Each of our party was armed with a 
rifle as well as an automatic, both of the 
most modern and approved pattern, but 
even at that, we did not relish the thought 
of an affray with unknown and unseen 
denizens of the forest; we considered dis- 
cretion to be the better part of valor. 

Our string of fires completely blocked 
us off from the gully or ravine side, and 
we hoped these fires would prove to be a 
sufficient deterrent to discourage any pos- 
sible midnight marauders. 

Out among the rocks and brush we now 
noticed an occasional flash from a pair 
of phosphorescent orbs, punctuated by a 
whine or whimper now and then, but for 
the time being that was all. 

These uncertainties soon wrought 
havoc on our nerves, until Kepner, in a 
moment of exasperation, caught up a 
burning brand and hurled it far beyond 
the circle of the fire, at which there was 
a scampering up the gully, but in just a 
few minutes they were back again, even 
bolder than before. 


74 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


Just then, near at hand there came a 
blood-curdling scream from the throat of 
a member of the panther family; he was 
apparently trying to bolster up his cour- 
age for some overt act, so Kepner decided 
to anticipate him, and fired a random 
shot. The scream was repeated, but this 
time it had a note of distress in it; how- 
ever the experience seemed to have had a 
very salutary effect on the others as well, 
and there followed a period of compara- 
tive quiet for half an hour or so, but as be- 
fore, only to be renewed with increasing 
aggressiveness. 

We now knew that if we hoped to se- 
cure any rest at all, we would have to take 
the initiative ourselves, so we fired a con- 
certed volley into the darkness, following 
it up with a shower of flying brands, and 
then each of us grasping a stray fire- 
brand, we charged the darkness; this was 
apparently too much for them to stand 
with equanimity, and we were soon left to 
ourselves, and, we correctly judged, for 
the remainder of the night. 

Bright and early the following morn- 
ing we took our departure, returning to 
our boat, and proceeded down the river to 


CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF ISLAND 75 


its mouth. We all heaved a sigh of re- 
lief in once again coming out into the 
open; we had but little appreciation for 
the experiences we were subjected to the 
preceding night. 

We were again favored with splendid 
sailing weather, and a couple hours later 
found us off the extreme southernmost 
point of the island. Seaweed and marsh 
land were so closely intermeshed, that we 
had no means of determining just where 
the shore line existed; so making a wide 
detour we rounded the point and pro- 
ceeded northward with “Shale Rock Cav- 
ern” as our objective. 

The remainder of the voyage was un- 
eventful, and we reached our destination 
at about five o’clock. We had circum- 
navigated “Steam Mountain Island.” 
Now what? 



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CHAPTER VI. 


More Mysteries. 

That evening, while gathered about the 
fireplace, we became reminiscent in mood. 
“Is it not peculiar that there has not been 
a recurrence of the kitchen utensil epi- 
sode?’’ inquired Kepner, speaking to ev- 
erybody in general, but in reality looking 
to the Professor for the reply. 

“My friends, has it occurred to any of 
you to associate that bizarre occurrence 
with the untoward southerly deflection of 
the ‘America?’” This question left us 
nonplussed! Continuing the Professor 
exclaimed, “ ‘Steam Mountain’ holds a 
mystery we must solve if at all possible, 
and I for one suggest that we proceed to 
the inland sea as promising more intimate 
relationship with ‘Steam Mountain’ than 
any other part of the island.” 

We acted on this suggestion, and on 
the morrow once more abandoned “Shale 


77 


78 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


Rock Cavern” for the time being. We 
proceeded as before, and arrived once 
again within the inland sea. We rowed 
slowly around its almost circular pe- 
rimeter, closely inspecting every square 
foot of its bleak, forbidding walls, when, 
rounding a very slight projection, there 
appeared a cleft in this otherwise uni- 
formly unbroken surface; this cleft was 
only about ten feet in width, but fortu- 
nately for us did not extend down to the 
sea level, but rather to within fifteen or 
twenty feet of it. A tumble of rocky 
boulders led to it, as though the cliff 
had been gouged out with a mighty chisel, 
and the debris allowed to litter the place. 

We fastened the boat to a boulder and 
climbed up like a lot of school boys on a 
frolic. The fissure was only about twen- 
ty feet deep, and as before stated about 
ten feet in width, but although a little 
crowded, it would afford splendid accom- 
modations for the night at least. 

As there was not a vestige of inflam- 
mable material anywhere to be seen, we 
delegated Kepner and Willie to take the 
boat back through the canyon to the sea 
shore in search of same. 


MORE MYSTERIES 


79 


They had been gone for about an hour, 
when suddenly, without a moment’s 
warning, there reverberated throughout 
the inland sea a high, shrill, whistling 
sound, simply terrifying in its volume and 
intensity ! The sound was continuous, 
but after the lapse of several moments we 
were conscious of a slight though almost 
imperceptible lowering of the pitch, and 
after the duration of probably a minute 
the lowering of the pitch was noticeably 
apparent. 

We stood appalled at this new and per- 
plexing mystery — what in the name of 
seven wonders could produce such vol- 
umes of sound outside of a gigantic steam 
whistle? The lowering of the pitch still 
continued, and with it, it lost a bit of its 
intensity, until the pitch became so ex- 
tremely low that we could scarcely de- 
termine whether we were hearing or feel- 
ing it! Finally there was a blubbering 
or soughing, and absolute stillness again. 

Kepner and Willie returned about half 
an hour later after a successful quest for 
dry wood; they had heard nothing what- 
ever of the sounds which had created such 


80 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

a panic among us, they having been on 
the outside at that time. 

We resolved that we would not allow 
this new mystery to depress our spirits, 
and busied ourselves with our camping 
affairs as though nothing out of the ordi- 
nary had occurred; our indifference was 
a little forced I must admit. 

We all embarked in the early morning 
and proceeded to complete our circum- 
navigation of the inland sea, when the 
Professor stayed our progress with a ges- 
ture of his hand. “Listen,” said he. We 
strained every nerve, and then sure 
enough, there was a blubbering and 
soughing sound, the counterpart of the 
diminished tone of last night. We were 
as though glued to our seats, so intense 
was our concentration; the pitch was ris- 
ing, scarcely perceptibly so, at least not 
like a sliding note ; much slower than that, 
but nevertheless positively so. 

This was no time for inaction, so the 
Professor shouted, “Forward. Straight 
across in the direction of ‘Steam Moun- 
tain.’ ” We lay to on the oars, and by 
this time the pitch was free from its blub- 
bering quality, and was more resonant. 


MORE MYSTERIES 


81 


As we continued to row, the pitch still 
had that higher tendency, till soon we 
were almost under that side of the wall 
adjacent to the “Steam Mountain,” and 
there we discovered a small black open- 
ing at the water line, probably about a 
foot across, and only half as high. The 
whistling sound seemed to be emanating 
from this orifice. 

It was almost deafening in intensity; 
we approached to within a boat’s length 
of the aperture, and felt a rushing of the 
air towards this opening. Willie lost his 
cap, and in the twinkling of an eye it dis- 
appeared through the black rift. 

During this interval, the pitch had con- 
tinued on the ascending scale, but the 
opening was becoming continuously 
smaller. It was by this time but six 
inches across and about three inches in 
height. Finally after an interval of 
probably another minute, it gave vent to 
a piercing sound so high in pitch as to be 
almost beyond the range of hearing, and 
then ceased altogether; the opening had 
also disappeared! 

“Friends,” said the Professor at this 
juncture, “we have just witnessed a very 


82 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

remarkable phenomenon ; the tides, as 
they rise and lower, conceal or expose 
greater or less portions of the orifice we 
have just seen, and this in connection with 
a strong inward draft occasions the sounds 
we have heard. What causes the draft is 
not as clear as the phenomenon of the 
tides; let us return here later when the 
diminuendo will have started, and unless 
I am much mistaken, we will make a dis- 
covery of interest.” 

We completed the circumnavigation 
of the inland sea, and were returning in 
the direction of our cliff abode, when once 
again the whistling started exactly as it 
had done when we heard it for the first 
time. We were curious to see the max- 
imum size of the aperture, and in due time, 
after having run through the entire 
gamut, there was exposed quite a large 
opening becoming larger every moment. 
Later on, when at its maximum, or in 
other words when the tide was at its low- 
est ebb, the cavity was fully fifteen feet 
across and approximately ten feet high. 

The inrushing of air, though as strong 
as ever, was not so concentrated. Evi- 
dently any vibrations due to its inrushing 


MORE MYSTERIES 


83 


were so low in pitch as to be inaudible. 
We were compelled to keep rowing to re- 
sist being drawn into its cavernous depths. 

As night was again approaching, we 
made our way across the sea to “Bivouac 
Ledge,” unanimously purposing to con- 
tinue our investigations on the morrow. 

The rest of us had sought sleep, but 
the Professor stood there on the ledge 
facing “Steam Mountain” for many 
hours. I knew this to be true, for I had 
been sleeping for some time, and as I lazi- 
ly rolled over, there was the Professor in 
exactly the same meditative position. 
How much longer he remained wrapped 
in his thoughts I do not know, for I slid 
off gently into the land of dreams and it 
was broad daylight when I awoke. 

The Professor looked haggard and 
worn from his night’s vigil, and we could 
see that his mind was still far away from 
his immediate surroundings. 

We started for the whistling cave soon 
after breakfast, and in a few minutes 
were again in front of its cavernous 
mouth. 

Kepner being an adept swimmer, had 
volunteered to swim into the opening, and 


84 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


despite his protests, we took the precau- 
tion to tie the end of a long rope about his 
waist. 

All having been put in readiness, he 
plunged fearlessly in and was soon lost to 
our sight in the mysterious darkness; not 
even the slightest sound of his swimming 
could we hear. We had previously ar- 
ranged on a code of rope pulling signals; 
our suspense was soon over as we had re- 
ceived the signal indicating that every- 
thing was all right for us to enter with 
the boat. 

We fastened the end of a remaining 
rope to a convenient projection, and then 
drifted swiftly in. Some fifty feet ahead 
of us, as revealed by our torches, was 
Kepner’s head bobbing in the black 
waters. The cavern had suddenly wid- 
ened out in all directions, and the light re- 
flected from the walls revealed marvel- 
ously grotesque formations. Kepner had 
by this time climbed into the boat, and we 
added his line to our own, and thereby 
enlarged our scope. 

To our right we noticed a ledge several 
feet high, beyond which was impenetrable 
darkness ; we swerved the boat over to this 


MORE MYSTERIES 


85 


ledge and as luck would have it our rope 
was just sufficiently long to allow us to 
make a landing. We lifted the boat high 
up on the rocks, and renewing our torches 
followed this particular grotto. We had 
climbed over huge boulders, now up, now 
down, but more up than down, and as we 
advanced, the grade became fully twenty 
degrees or even more. We had followed 
a wall to our right for part of the way, 
but now found that we were in a compar- 
atively narrow corridor, with walls on 
both sides, but the top or roof of indeter- 
minate height. In the course of half an 
hour we judged that we had climbed to 
an elevation of approximately one hun- 
dred feet, and probably three times as far 
onward. At this point the incline ceased 
and became comparatively level, almost 
floor-like, in fact. 

Radio, with his inexplicable sixth sense, 
was roaming about freely when we heard 
him barking in the distance. We hurried 
on in that direction, and came abruptly to 
a fissure through which the daylight was 
streaming. The barking was still on the 
other side, so worming our way through, 
we found Radio with his paws on a sort 


86 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


of natural rocky balustrade, barking his 
delight at having been freed from the de- 
pressing gloom of the interior. 

Our astonishment and delight knew no 
bounds, for we were on a sort of natural 
balcony overlooking the inland sea, about 
one hundred feet above its placid surface. 
At last we had found our permanent 
abode, and we straightway called it “Bal- 
cony Hall.” 

While there remained sufficient time, 
we returned to our boat and we were just 
in the “nick of time,” as our exit would 
have been debarred had we delayed our 
return but a few minutes longer. To 
have sojourned within “Balcony Hall” all 
night would not have been entirely to our 
taste considering our very scant knowl- 
edge of its immediate environments. 

Without going into too many details, 
I will state that the next day we all re- 
turned to “Shale Rock Cavern,” secured 
the balance of our now meager effects, 
and bidding it a fond farewell, returned 
to “Bivouac Ledge.” 

We again sought “Balcony Hall,” and 
were vastly pleased to discover on closer 
inspection that it revealed just those 


MORE MYSTERIES 


87 


features we could have most desired. 
The corridor stopped abruptly just be- 
yond the opening to the balcony, and the 
opposite wall was intact, so that there was 
only one egress, and that was identical 
with our ingress, that is, down the incline 
to the boat landing in the grotto one hun- 
dred feet below. More than this, about 
half way down the incline, there was a cool 
stream of spring water welling up from 
beneath the tumble of rocks, and Willie 
had already hollowed and dammed it into 
a reservoir about a foot deep and several 
feet in diameter. Had it not been for 
this or a similar supply of fresh water, we 
could not have entertained the thought of 
abiding at “Balcony Hall,” as the inland 
sea was saltj^^ as its parent the ocean. 

While it gave us a fine sense of security 
to know that at stated times the only in- 
gress to our chambers was barred by the 
tides, still even that condition might 
prove to be a serious inconvenience to us, 
so we built a ladder with wooden cross 
pieces and rope stays and this we dropped 
from the balcony to the sea below. 

This occupation had kept us busy for 
the best part of three days, as we had but 


88 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


the one boat, and the rungs had to be se- 
cured from down the beach. Our provi- 
sions were beginning to run low and we 
knew that it would be absolutely neces- 
sary to distribute our united efforts so as 
to properly take care of this important 
item; so Kepner and Willie, having al- 
ready given evidence of their prowess in 
this direction, were delegated to the main- 
tenance of our larder as a steady occupa- 
tion. 

One day Kepner caught sight of a goat 
high up on the scraggy sides of the moun- 
tain, and had brought him down a-tum- 
bling; thereafter we found this source of 
food a very fertile one, though somewhat 
hazardous. 

In due course of time, we had ascer- 
tained that the upper regions bordering 
our inland sea were comparatively level, 
and some three or four square miles in 
extent; also, we discovered that Puma 
River had its source in the foothills of 
“Steam Mountain,” being fed by the gla- 
ciers on its snow-capped sides. 

We had now been sojourning on the 
island for approximately three months. 


MORE MYSTERIES 


89 


and were nicely ensconced in our cozy 
quarters at “Balcony Hall.” 

We had pretty thoroughly explored 
the surface of the island, but how about 
those vast cavernous recesses which 
spread before us as revealed by the glim- 
mer of torches from our boat landing? 
Surely there remained much to he ac- 
complished. 




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CHAPTER VII. 


The Advent of the Wizard. 

One morning Brown, Kepner and Wil- 
lie were grouped on the balcony ledge, 
when Brown (mark you, the silent mech- 
anician) exclaimed, “Look! an airship!” 
pointing directly ahead, but considerably 
upward, and sure enough — there, plainly, 
distinctly, before our very eyes and not 
more than five hundred yards distant, was 
an airship, but even as we gazed at it, it 
rapidly diminished in size until it became 
a speck, and then vanished altogether! 
This all happened in less time than it has 
taken to tell it. 

There was pandemonium on that bal- 
cony when the Professor and I reached 
the spot. All three of the eye witnesses 
were trying to impart the news at the 
same time. Three eye witnesses to the 
sight of an airship, seen at a range of five 
hundred yards, less than one minute pre- 
91 


92 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


viously, and still no airship in sight! In 
fact, having totally shriveled out of sight 
within ten seconds after having been first 
sighted by Brown. 

“Gentlemen, you must be mistaken!” 
exclaimed the Professor, but they reiter- 
ated their account with still greater assur- 
ance, and the Professor turned silently 
back into “Balcony Hall,” and we did not 
see him again for several hours. 

I in turn questioned them, and Brown 
said, “Well, I ought to be able to tell an 
airship when I see it. In fact, it was of 
the monoplane tractor type and not an 
hallucination, either.” 

This discourse from our ordinarily si- 
lent mechanician went farther towards 
convincing me than could any thing else 
have done ; but, whose airship was it ? who 
could appear directly in front of us, and 
then disappear almost in the same in- 
stant? We were certainly a very mysti- 
fied little group, but time would probably 
clear up the mystery. 

One day the Professor appeared sud- 
denly amongst us. “Gentlemen” (when 
he addressed us after this fashion, we 
knew that something of importance was 


ADVENT OF THE WIZARD 


93 


brewing). “Gentlemen, I move that we 
explore the grotto of ‘Steam Mountain;’ 
its cavernous depths may hold the secret 
of the mountain; at any rate that will be 
better than continuing to abide in this, to 
me, more than intolerable suspense.” 

The suggestion met with instant and 
enthusiastic approval, and under the 
guidance of the Professor, we at once be- 
gan elaborate preparations, safeguarding 
ourselves in every respect, as such a ven- 
ture was not to be entered into lightly. 

There was the problem of light to be 
solved, lines to guide us on our return, 
and many other seemingly minor items, 
any one of which might prove a serious 
handicap should it be overlooked. 

Kepner and Willie redoubled their ef- 
forts to secure provisions; Eb was set to 
the task of making a great supply of 
torches, and furthermore, we reclaimed 
the rope in our ladder, and at the same 
time unraveled an extra piece of heavy 
duck cloth, so that we had almost miles of 
stout cord when our task was done. 

Preparatory to our more pretentious 
incursion, we made several trips inward 
for at least half a mile or more; the last 


94 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

trip we made, we landed on a sort of pro- 
jection from the face of a huge pile ex- 
tending diagonally upward as far as the 
light from our torches would penetrate 
the darkness; how much farther it really 
extended we had no means of ascertain- 
ing short of making the climb. 

We were about to return when we 
heard a sound as of rushing air; and 
climbing up the rock to a point some 
thirty feet higher, we were compelled to 
brace ourselves against a veritable gale 
which seemed to be striving to draw us up 
into a yawning cavity some fifty feet in 
diameter. 

We hurriedly retraced our steps as 
best we could against such a gale, and in 
due course were again safe within “Bal- 
cony Hall.” 

“Friends, we have at last discovered 
what will ultimately lead to the revelation 
of the many mysteries which have con- 
fronted us since our sojourn on this is- 
land. I am in the dark as much as your- 
selves, but am fully convinced that our 
next move should be the complete explo- 
ration of the yawning aperture into which 
we gazed this afternoon.” 


ADVENT OF THE WIZARD 


95 


Before doing anything else the Pro- 
fessor requested that the parachute en- 
velope which had been abandoned at 
“Shale Rock Cavern” be brought to 
“Balcony Hall.” 

The Professor vouchsafed no explana- 
tion as to what he wished to do with the 
parachute envelope, which indicated that 
he was not as much in the dark as he 
claimed to be. 

Brown and Kepner had volunteerd to 
get the parachute envelope, and so every- 
thing being in readiness, the entire party 
finally embarked at the boat landing and 
followed the cord leading into the dark- 
ness. 

We rapidly traversed the distance, and 
in the course of half an hour we were once 
again beneath that yawning, wind-be- 
sieged fissure; its aspect was particularly 
forbidding, and the suction became more 
and more intensified as we neared it. 

We finally made the start, the Pro- 
fessor leading, and Eb, with the para- 
chute rolled into a compact bundle and 
strapped to his shoulders, brought up the 
rear. 

The incline was somewhat rough in 


96 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


places, and at times we had to help Radio, 
as he was apparently not built for such 
feats ; however, we were progressing 
splendidly, and with as conservative use 
of our torches as conditions would per- 
mit. 

The rush of air about our ears was con- 
tinuous, and it gave us a sort of panicky 
instinct at first, but as time passed on, we 
became accustomed to this everlasting 
gale. 

At times the bore or tunnel narrowed 
down to a lesser diameter, whereat the 
rush of air became almost violent; in fact 
we were being pushed up at a minimum 
expenditure of energy. Eb came dan- 
gerously near losing his precious bundle 
on several occasions; this was on account 
of its bulk, but he held on tenaciously nev- 
ertheless. There were numerous grottoes 
extending laterally all along the way, 
any one of which would have proven of 
interest, but we hurried on, following the 
main bore or wind-swept chambers — up- 
ward, ever upward. 

After about an hour’s strenuous effort 
we sought rest in a sort of pocket, away 
from the direct path of the bore, and 


ADVENT OF THE WIZARD 


97 


much to Eb’s relief, for, strong as he was, 
the burden of the parachute was begin- 
ning to tell on him. 

We had been progressing for the last 
hour at approximately an angle of forty- 
five degrees, and judged that we must 
have been fully one thousand feet above 
the sea level, and fully as far towards the 
center of “Steam Mountain.” 

After a short rest we made another 
start, and continued on for another two 
hours. By this time we were pretty well 
exhausted as a party, and finding another 
nook out of reach of the everlasting wind, 
we laid down to rest and to sleep if pos- 
sible. 

This awesome place was surely getting 
on my nerves, and I, for one, was on the 
point of backing out on several occasions; 
the thought of the distances we had al- 
ready traversed, and the ground we 
would have to cover on our return, almost 
discouraged me. 

The Professor, realizing the necessity 
of making as great progress as possible, 
gave the signal, and once more we trudged 
wearily up the seemingly endless incline. 

We were now fully four thousand feet 


98 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


above the level of the sea, and even more 
than that within the very heart of the 
mountain. When and how would all 
this end? was the thought which obsessed 
me, but seeing how patiently the others 
trudged on, I kept my peace. 

After several more baitings, the Pro- 
fessor signified that we had all better par- 
take of something to eat and gain as much 
sleep as possible; this halt he said would 
be for at least six hours. So exhausted 
were we that we almost fell to sleep the 
moment our heads rested on our pack. 

I awoke with a start, and groping 
about for a match, lit my torch. The 
others were still sleeping soundly, with 
the exception of the Professor, who was 
sitting with his head between his hands, 
doubtless still in profound thought, which 
thinking I began to sincerely hope would 
lead us to somewhere or something — any- 
thing rather than this everlasting climb! 
climb! climb! 

Suddenly, turning to me, the Profes- 
sor said “Wake them up; we must move 
on again.” It was with many a sleepy 
protest that all were brought back to the 
land of action again. 


ADVENT OF THE WIZARD 


99 


For the next couple hours there was 
but a repetition of that which had already 
passed, when we finally reached the top 
of the incline, and there directly in front 
of us was a solid wall of granite barring 
the path. There was no other outlet, ex- 
cept perhaps straight above; yes, there 
was the continuation of the bore, directly 
above us, a pin-hole of light came strug- 
gling down; yes, it was daylight, and it 
faintly lighted up the interior of this well- 
like place whose sides were as perpendic- 
ular as those of a well, even though about 
fifty feet apart. 

The gale was still rushing, but it now 
led directly upward. How were we to 
proceed now? 

The Professor, who had been gazing 
up this monstrous chimney-like bore, sud- 
denly called to Eb to bring his parachute 
bundle, and Eb quickly complying came 
staggering forward with it. 

“Friends,” said the Professor, “you 
will now understand why 1 have been so 
persistent in having the parachute 
brought along; matters have turned out 
very much as I had anticipated; we will 


100 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


have the parachute lift us out of this al- 
most bottomless pit.” 

Eb, in his eagerness to assist, had al- 
ready undone one of the retaining 
straps, which act allowed a very small sec- 
tion of the parachute to become inflated, 
and we came dangerously near losing 
both Eb and the parachute. “Not now!” 
exclaimed the Professor; “we must make 
our preparations very carefully, and in 
one of the alcoves away from the draft, 
or else we will lose the best friend we 
have.” 

Sturdy hands dragged the partially 
opened parachute back to a place of com- 
parative calm. The Professor was very 
methodical and cautious in its unfolding, 
lest by some careless move we should lose 
it altogether, which, under the circum- 
stances, would have been a very great 
calamity indeed. 

A huge boulder weighing probably flve 
or six hundred pounds was then rolled to 
a position as near the center of the verti- 
cal bore as we could estimate; a groove 
was hollowed out between this boulder 
and the loose rocky bottom of the cavern, 
and a stout rope was passed under it. 


ADVENT OF THE WIZARD 


101 


Then by degrees the parachute was al- 
lowed to come into the path of the air cur- 
rent, until we had it in position, but firmly 
anchored to the boulder in addition to our 
restraining hands. 

First Radio was securely tied at the 
very apex of the sustaining ropes, and 
each had fixed himself a loop for the foot 
in his own particular stay rope, and all 
being in readiness, the Professor, with a 
final warning, severed the rope, and with 
a terrific jerk we were thrust rapidly up- 
ward through the vertical bore. 

Up! up! up! we sped; its walls seemed 
to be rushing downwards, and the wind 
had ceased, for, we were now traveling 
with it. 

After some minutes we were suddenly 
projected high into the air; the parachute 
at times getting out from the direct thrust 
of the column of air, and again, buoyed 
up still higher, much in the same capri- 
cious manner as a light pith ball is act- 
ed upon by a vertical jet of water. 
After we had been jostled about in this 
manner for some moments, the parachute 
then being on the ragged edge of the air 
fountain, tilted over and came danger- 


102 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


ously near to capsizing us all; however, 
she righted herself again and we descend- 
ed swiftly to the ground below. 

We were in the crater of “Steam 
Mountain.’’ The steam column was not 
a solid mass, as one would judge as 
viewed from the exterior, but there was a 
steam wall entirely surrounding the in- 
terior of the crater. 

We had just untrammeled ourselves 
from the mass of ropes, and regained an 
upright position, when a resonant voice 
immediately back of us said, “Good morn- 
ing, gentlemen; I have been expecting 
you!” 


CHAPTER VIII. 


The Wizard^s Domain. 

A thunderbolt from out of a clear sky 
could not have startled us more than the 
strange voice of a human being at this 
time and place. We stood there for a 
brief moment, too astounded to either 
speak or act, until, with a wonderful light 
dawning upon his countenance. Profes- 
sor Turner advanced and grasped the 
welcoming, outstretched hand of the 
speaker, exclaiming, ‘‘Professor Wald- 
inger!” 

So this was the lost Professor, but it 
was a pretty hard question to decide at 
that particular moment as to whether we 
had discovered the lost Professor Wald- 
inger, or whether he had found us, for, 
had he not in his first salutation said, “I 
have been expecting you”? But we were 
soon to learn more than our imaginations 
even had the temerity to conjure up. 

103 


104 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


Professor Turner having introduced 
the rest of us, our host invited us to his 
bungalow, which he smilingly assured us 
was only a quarter of a mile distant. A 
bungalow in this place! what could he 
mean? What was he doing here? Why 
living here? etc. 

Although we were now in a compara- 
tively open glade, we nevertheless could 
not see any great distance, because of the 
dense masses of tropical vegetation which 
completely surrounded us. There was 
plenty of light from above, but it was of 
a peculiarly diffused nature, the air was 
heavily laden with moisture, and we had 
the sensation of having just entered a 
huge hot-house or conservatory. There 
was no evidence of any breeze whatso- 
ever; the humidity and silence were not 
oppressive, but rather restful after our 
strenuous and miraculous escape through 
the hollow core of “Steam Mountain.” 

“This way, gentlemen,” we heard Pro- 
fessor Waldinger saying, and we fol- 
lowed him silently and with much awe. 

We traversed the distance through a 
well defined and evidently much used 
path, and arrived upon a scene which beg- 


THE WIZARD^ S DOMAIN 


105 


gars description. Were we in full pos- 
session of our senses, or was this in truth 
another world? A more vivid and vari- 
egated assortment of colors could scarcely 
be imagined — great banks of flowers, in- 
tense in their solid, massy profusion, 
greeted the eyes in every direction; a 
gentle incline of vividly green, well kept 
grassy lawn spread itself directly in front 
of us. At the further extreme of this 
open space, nestling beneath wide spread- 
ing acacias, was the home of Professor 
Waldinger. 

Our host was simply radiating hospi- 
tality. His welcoming smile had some- 
what of exultation in it, but not a whit of 
condescension. Professor Turner was 
acting in a somewhat reserved, defensive 
manner, but without any visible trace of 
umbrage. His aforetime opponent cer- 
tainly had the advantage now, but was 
being gracious enough not to abuse it. 

Professor Waldinger was quite short 
of stature, but his physical handicap was 
more than counterbalanced by his tre- 
mendously strong personality. Virility 
and power dominated his every thought 
or act; his head was large for his dimin- 


106 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


utive body, but exceedingly well formed. 
As for his eyes, they were effectually con- 
cealed behind a pair of large, heavily 
lensed glasses, through which he seemed 
to look into one’s very soul. A truly re- 
markable man ; a gigantic personality in a 
diminutive frame. 

With a wave of the hand, and a wel- 
coming bow, he bade us enter his home, 
and we filed up the steps to the veranda, 
much like a lot of diffident school boys, 
so insignificant did we feel in his pres- 
ence. 

Having excused himself, and bidding 
us to make ourselves at home, we sank in- 
to chair or hammock as the case might 
have been, and stared at each other blank- 
ly. With Professor Waldinger’s depart- 
ure there came a reaction, and at last all 
of our long suppressed emotions seemed 
to well up at once ; but in the midst of this 
babel. Professor Turner cautioned, 
“Here comes Professor Waldinger,” but 
if we were astounded at what we had seen 
thus far, what do you think could have 
been our impressions when Professor 
Waldinger advanced from the doorway 
holding the hand of a most marvelously 


THE WIZARD^S DOMAIN 


107 


beautiful and winsome young woman, 
probably about twenty years of age. 
“Gentlemen, this is my daughter Bessie.” 

With a most charming and unconven- 
tional manner she shook hands with us in 
turn, welcoming us all heartily, and again 
sought the hand of her father. 

We had, at our host’s solicitation, 
sought seats again; Miss Bessie was 
snuggling contentedly by her father’s side 
when our host, speaking more directly to 
Professor Turner, went on as follows: 

“I have a confession to make, and trust 
that you will accept same as graciously as 
possible, which I admit will be asking 
much of you. I alone am responsible for 
your presence here on this island!” 

There was some little commotion 
among us at this rather startling claim, 
which would naturally require consider- 
able elaboration to substantiate, and we 
were still staring at him in astonishment, 
when he proceeded, still holding Profes- 
sor Turner with his commanding eye. 
“Yes, I repeat it, I alone am responsible 
for your having lost the aviation contest, 
for I diverted the ‘America’ from her 
course, and forced it to land here within 


108 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

my crater home. Your ‘America’ even 
now lies hard by. However, I confess 
that when it did arrive I expected to find 
you all safe within, and my disappoint- 
ment in capturing the airship tenantless 
was very keen indeed. 

“Naturally you ask by what right and 
by what means did I do this? As to the 
why, I will now explain, but as to the 
how, that will come later when I will have 
shown you through my laboratories. 

“Professor Turner, you will please 
pardon my hasty and rather unceremoni- 
ous advent from the meeting of the 
American Society of Scientific Research, 
some ten years ago, at which time I was 
honored to the extent of engaging in de- 
bate with you; I say I am sorry for the 
manner in which I left, but at the same 
time, if this was the only thing which 
would have aroused me to extraordinary 
effort towards vindication then I am glad 
the event occurred.” 

Professor Waldinger’s manner, as be- 
fore stated, was entirely devoid of any 
patronizing taint, but rather the magna- 
nimity of a gracious victor towards the 
conquered. 


THE WIZARD^S DOMAIN 


109 


“You will doubtless remember that my 
last words before so unceremoniously re- 
tiring were that I would yet demonstrate 
the truth of my theories. Well, Profes- 
sor Turner, this I have done. It will be 
my peculiar pleasure to convince you of 
this in due time ! For the present, I sup- 
pose that you and your party would be in- 
terested in knowing more about this mar- 
velous ‘Steam Mountain,’ so we will de- 
vote the rest of the day to this, and re- 
serve the shops and laboratories until 
later.” 

He sent his daughter on an errand, and 
shortly she returned with an armful of 
raincoats, sufficient for the entire party, 
including herself, and it was quite appar- 
ent that this last fact was of peculiar in- 
terest to Kepner, for it was he who helped 
Miss Bessie into her raincoat, and re- 
ceived therefor a very gracious “Thank 
you.” 

Professor Waldinger led us back the 
way we had come, and we shudderingly 
gave the yawning abyss of the wind-swept 
vertical bore or chimney a very wide 
berth, as it did not hold many pleasant 
memories for us. 


110 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


Wending our way through dense, and 
in fact almost monstrous vegetation 
(which elicited from Professor Turner 
many a startled exclamation, as he would 
now and then recognize some rare spe- 
cies of flower or herb). Professor Wald- 
inger led us onward for about half an 
hour, when we came abruptly to the base 
of a mound or hillock, probably about a 
hundred feet in height. 

It was rather astonishing how incapa- 
ble of physical effort Kepner seemed to 
view Miss Bessie ; his anxious solicitations 
were laughingly accepted, but truth to 
tell, it was Kepner who more than once 
was in need of her assistance, rather than 
she, his. 

Arriving at the top of this mound, we 
eagerly gazed around in every direction, 
and ever and always our gaze was met 
with a distant wall of steam. This mound 
seemed to be almost in the exact center of 
the crater, which Professor Waldinger 
advised us was just three and one quar- 
ter miles in diameter. Descending again, 
our host escorted us in a direction at right 
angles to that of our approach to the 
mound. 


THE WIZARD^S DOMAIN 


111 


In the course of about half or three- 
quarters of an hour, we arrived in quite 
close proximity to the steam fringe on 
this side of the crater, and the noise of its 
escapement became louder every minute. 

Our host now cautioned us to fasten our 
raincoats securely, as we were about to 
enter a narrow zone of continuous rain- 
fall; continuous drizzle would have ex- 
pressed it better. 

There were hundreds of separate steam 
jets visible from this point; their separa- 
tion could not have been more than prob- 
ably fifty feet or so, but were so much at 
random, and covering a belt of probably 
two hundred yards, that from a distance 
would seem like just one continuous jet. 

We wended our way in and out among 
these columns until we reached the ex- 
terior, and then there dawned upon our 
vision the island in all its entirety; there 
below us was the inland sea sunk into the 
plateau, looking very diminutive from 
this terrific height. The whole island 
was bathed in sunlight, and presented a 
marvelously beautiful scene. 

We shortly retired again through the 
hot steam columns, when Professor 


112 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


Waldinger stopped by the side of an iron 
pipe which projected from the ground to 
a height of several feet. Our host ex- 
plained that this was only one of a series 
of similar installations which he had erect- 
ed about two years previously. These 
pipes were capped with a steam gauge 
for recording pressure. 

“I desired to know somewhat of the 
forces so intimately surrounding me, and 
it was my habit to take these readings 
about once a week, and, gentlemen, the 
steam pressure has been, and is, on the in- 
crease. The present reading being fully 
one pound more per square inch than it 
was this time last week. The trend is, 
and has always been on the increase, and 
the current readings are fully fifty 
pounds per square inch more than was the 
first reading two years or so ago. This 
pressure is accelerating, and if it contin- 
ues to persist at this rate, it will only be 
a question of a few months at most, when 
the crater cap will be blown out like the 
cork of a champagne bottle.” 


CHAPTER IX. 


We Become Bettee Acquainted. 

We proceeded towards the Professor’s 
bungalow, after having again passed 
through the envelope of heavy mist, which 
the Professor proclaimed to be the char- 
acteristic of the entire perimeter of steam 
surrounding the crater cap. 

We had traversed about a quarter of a 
mile on our return trip, when Professor 
Waldinger calmly said, “Behold the 
America!” Yes, there it was, apparent- 
ly in perfect condition, and still upright. 
We were glad to see it again, and I was 
particularly pleased to recover my prop- 
erty, but from Brown’s manner there still 
remained a tinge of resentment. 

We arrived at the bungalow at about 
dusk; the absence of shadows was a very 
peculiar and distinctive thing about this 
strange land; what light there still re- 
mained was so diffused by the steam en- 
113 


114 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


velope, as to make a shadow an impossi- 
bility. 

As we entered the doorway, the place 
suddenly became effulgent with artificial 
light, emanating we knew not from where. 
The source was very manifestly not elec- 
trical, at least not directly so. 

“How and where did you operate the 
switch controlling the lights?” asked Pro- 
fessor Turner. “I did not operate any 
switch, as there are none to operate; the 
mere proximity of our human dynamos so 
influences properly placed relays within 
the scope of a certain radius, and the 
lights are automatically set a-going there- 
by. As we leave this room, they will just 
as automatically extinguish themselves; 
but the contrivance, marvelous as it may 
seem to you, is as nothing compared to 
that which I still have in store for you! 
But, continued he, “first of all, we must 
have something to eat ; we may be in what 
seems to you a veritable fairyland of sci- 
ence, but still eating remains a stern 
necessity.” 

As we entered the dining room, the 
place became illuminated in the same mys- 
terious manner, and, glancing back, we 


BECOME BETTER ACQUAINTED 115 

noted that the lights had become extin- 
guished in the apartments we had just 
left. 

“This beats carrying a lantern, doesn’t 
it!” exclaimed Kepner. Miss Bessie 
smiled back at him a little condescend- 
ingly, and all at once Kepner felt a little 
awe creep over him; was this just an or- 
dinary girl, or did she too possess the un- 
canny knowledge of her father? 

The dinner consisted of many savory 
dishes, for the most part unfamiliar to us, 
but none the less appetizing because of 
that. 

It was served by a big stalwart East 
Indian in a very silent and very dignified 
manner. 

Our host explained that this servant 
was but one of half a dozen others, of the 
same nationality, upon whom he depend- 
ed for all services rendered within the 
crater, including mechanics and engi- 
neers, in the furtherance of his elaborate 
experimentations. “They have proven 
faithful in every emergency and have held 
inviolate trusts reposed in them, so that 
even though I give them leave of absence 


116 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


occasionally they have never divulged any 
of my secrets.” 

After dinner we retired to the library, 
which was literally walled with choice vol- 
umes, and the table was covered with all 
the current literature. I picked up a 
daily paper at random and found that it 
bore a date just one day back. It was a 
copy of the Chicago Enquirer! 

I was so startled at this that I uttered 
an exclamation, calling Professor Turn- 
er’s attention to the date; making no re- 
ply, he sank limply into a convenient 
chair. He was now apparently ready for 
almost anything. 

While we had made no overtures to our 
host in regard to the date shown on the 
papers, he seemed to sense our wonder- 
ment, and so proceeded to explain that 
one of his men had gone to the United 
States for a paper and a few other minor 
articles just yesterday. 

“But, Professor Waldinger,” exclaimed 
Professor Turner, “such a statement is 
perfectly inexplicable to us. How can 
you serenely proceed to annihilate time 
and space in such a manner?” 

“Perfectly simple,” replied Professor 


BECOME BETTER ACQUAINTED 117 


Waldinger; “he made the trip in my air- 
ship, which can travel at the rate of one 
thousand miles per hour. You will learn 
more about the propelling power I use 
after our visit to the laboratory. I will 
state, however, that it was through the in- 
strumentality of this airship that I dis- 
covered ‘Steam Mountain Crater.’ 

“When I approached ‘Steam Moun- 
tain’ for the first time, I, too, was of the 
opinion that the steam column was a solid 
mass clear through to its center, until I 
inadvertently passed through its envelope 
at an extreme height, when I observed 
that its center seemed to be less dense, 
and on spiralling down, discovered this 
crater, and made it my headquarters from 
that time on. 

“Before taking you to the laboratories 
and shops, it might be well to mention 
a few things of common interest. 

“I confess to you that I thought your 
party had been lost. When one evening 
about three or four days after the tenant- 
less ‘America’ reached my domain, while 
I was carrying on some experiments, 
there suddenly crashed through the win- 
dow and up against my Vibrometer, a 


118 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

common kitchen fork, with a short piece 
of string trailing from it.” 

The professor walked over to a small 
cabinet and extracted therefrom the iden- 
tical fork and string. 

‘T suppose you will all recognize this? 
At any rate, I knew that you must have 
suspicioned something, and thereafter I 
had to be exceedingly wary not to dis- 
cover myself to you; I was not quite 
ready to do so in fact. Then on another 
occasion, some weeks later, just after I 
had embarked in my flying ship prepara- 
tory to a short run to Australia, several 
of your party discovered me from your 
retreat in the sea wall.” 

“Balcony Hall,” corrected Kepner. 

“Yes, from your ‘Balcony Hall,’ and I 
was compelled to resort to an optical illu- 
sion — to the trick of vanishing from your 
sight. I could not dematerialize — noth- 
ing which I have accomplished even 
verges on the supernatural — so I merely 
retreated in the direct line of your vision, 
which retreat having been so very rapid, 
and without the slightest lateral move- 
ment whatever, it must have seemed to 


BECOME BETTER ACQUAINTED 119 

you as though but an hallucination of the 
mind.” 

“Yes, we pondered over that event 
much of our spare time, but without any 
satisfactory solution,” acquiesced Pro- 
fessor Turner. 

“As it is getting late I believe that it 
will be best to reserve our visit to the 
shops and laboratories until the morn- 
ing,” suggested Professor Waldinger. 

We all bade our host and daughter 
good-night, and I am quite sure that 
Kepner bade Miss Bessie a couple of 
good-nights; however, that remark might 
be entirely gratuitous on my part. Any- 
how, we were all comfortably lodged, and 
were soon sound asleep. 



THE WIZARD'S VIBROMETER 



CHAPTER X. 


The Fairy Land of Science. 

I awoke decisively — I cannot say sud- 
denly, for that would scarcely convey my 
meaning. Just what outward cause had 
awakened me, I could not define, but nev- 
ertheless, I had the consciousness that 
someone, or something had awakened me, 
but could not attribute to any one of my 
five senses any degree of responsibility. 
It was a rather pleasureable experience 
at any rate. 

I met Professor Turner in the hallway, 
and casually asked him what had awak- 
ened him. He could not define any more 
explicitly than I could, but was equally 
certain that an outside influence was re- 
sponsible. 

It was of little real moment, however, 
but our curiosity had been aroused, and 
after having ascertained that all the rest 
of the party had undergone similar ex- 
121 


122 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

periences, we determined to ask Professor 
Waldinger if he was the author; so, at 
the breakfast table, we broached the sub- 
ject, and he told us in a matter-of-fact 
sort of way, that it was his habit to keep 
his vibrometer timed and tuned, to gen- 
erate such a train, or trains of vibrations, 
as would stimulate all of the sleeper’s 
senses simultaneously, but in a very 
slight degree only; the resultant stimula- 
tion, or co-ordination of the senses, be- 
ing sufficient to awaken the sleeper with- 
out shock. 

“I put you to sleep in the same man- 
ner, but the process was just the reverse, 
as I was then sending counteracting vi- 
brations, the trend being from the con- 
scious to the unconscious, and the process 
so gradual that j^ou were not aware of the 
transition.” 

His refusal to go into any further de- 
tails at that time, in connection with his 
offhand manner of treating this, as well 
as several other matters of truly remark- 
able accomplishment, only indicated that 
those things which he really considered 
worth the while, must of necessity be 
something truly stupendous! 


THE FAIRY LAND OF SCIENCE 123 

Our host and hostess having arisen 
from the table, we did likewise, and Pro- 
fessor Waldinger announced that he pro- 
posed taking us through the shops first. 

Kepner and Bessie had by this time be- 
come almost inseparable companions, and 
if her father noticed the trend of matters 
at least he never gave a sign. 

The way to the shops led in a direction 
opposite to that which we had taken the 
previous day, and after a walk of about 
five minutes, we came upon a cluster, or 
more specifically, a triangle of one-story 
buildings, probably about three acres in 
extent. The center court contained a 
somewhat more pretentious building of 
greater height, and apparently construct- 
ed of glass throughout. 

Our path paralleled the exterior of one 
of the lower buildings, until we reached 
its extreme end, or apex of the triangle, 
nearest the steam wall. 

We entered the building, and upon be- 
ing informed that it was the power house, 
were much bewildered at the lack of evi- 
dences of boilers and the like. 

“You see, gentlemen, I have an inex- 
haustible supply of steam, secured from 


124 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

natural sources.” Plainly it was simply 
a question of tapping a steam geyser and 
piping same to the enormous engine 
which was practically the only piece of 
machinery in this half of the building. 
There was nothing astonishing about the 
engine itself, being simply one of the 
most efficient and approved types, such as 
could be seen in almost any well appoint- 
ed manufacturing plant. 

There was but one attendant in this 
room; he seemed but a duplication of the 
man servant we had already met; silent 
and grave, but with a very deferential 
manner towards his employer. 

The engine, which we had just wit- 
nessed and passed, was not in operation 
at that time. 

Beckoning us from a doorway leading 
into another compartment, we followed, 
and here, again, all was silence; it con- 
tained several electrical units of evidently 
tremendous capacity, but also inoper- 
ative at that time. 

“What you have seen so far was merely 
my means to an end, and it has been sev- 
eral years since this plant has been oper- 
ated.” 


THE FAIRY LAND OF SCIENCE 125 


We passed on to the machine shop, 
but here there were some evidences of 
activity; several workmen were busily 
engaged at as many different styles of 
machinery. The power was being sup- 
plied by a comparatively small electric 
plant. 

“From now on, you will observe the 
products of the plant through which we 
have just passed, wherein I utilize a force 
of which I am the sole discoverer! We 
are about to pass through the building 
wherein are installed the apparatuses 
which are the sources of this power, but 
as they are noiseless in operation, en- 
closed, and very much alike when viewed 
from their exterior, I will now conduct 
you to the laboratory which contains the 
culmination of my achievements,” (and 
turning to Professor Turner) “my vin- 
dication! Mark you, I reiterate, my vin- 
dication! It is here that I will demon- 
strate to you, my aforetime opponent, 
the absolute accuracy of the premises up- 
on which my thesis was based on that re- 
grettable occasion ten years ago.” 

Before our astonished eyes there ap- 
peared the most marvelously intricate 


126 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


mechanism conceivable. It was mon- 
strous in size, probably about two hun- 
dred feet in length, and twenty or twenty- 
five feet in width. Its height was vari- 
able, and its component parts of steel, 
brass, copper, aluminum and glass. 

“Behold my Vibrometer! Gentlemen, 
with this instrument I can generate forces 
or completely annul existing ones; aug- 
ment or diminish any of the forces which 
are interpreted by our five senses, and in- 
cidentally, a few other inferential ones! I 
can interweave, differentiate, co-ordinate 
or completely counteract vibrations of 
any source or nature whatsoever! I will 
shortly have you see sl sound; hear a color; 
both hear and see an odor. Mix your 
senses as you will, by seemingly contra- 
dictory combinations of terms, and, being 
given vibrations, whether of air or ether, 
this machine, under my guidance, will pro- 
gress through the entire gamut of com- 
monly known vibrations (and a few oth- 
ers), whether the scale be an ascending or 
descending one ; whether the thing re- 
quired is harmony, dissonance, or com- 
plete obliteration. In other words my 
Vibrometer faithfully records and trans- 


THE FAIRY LAND OF SCIENCE 127 


forms energy so as to bring it within the 
scope of any or all of our five senses. It 
maintains an absolute and mathemat- 
ically correct record in those areas where- 
in the harp of our senses has certain 
strings missing, until by means of differ- 
ence vibrations, and complex combina- 
tions of same, the resultant once more 
merges into the realm of our senses.” 

Bidding his daughter Bessie take her 
position on a brass plate about twenty 
feet from where we were then standing, 
he swung a lever into position, and Miss 
Bessie actually vanished from our view! 

Kepner rushed frantically forward, 
but was detained by a commanding gest- 
ure from Professor Waldinger. “Wait! 
Would I harm my own daughter?” he 
said. 

We gazed eagerly, and Kepner, some- 
what despairingly, notwithstanding the 
reassuring words of her father, when, by 
degrees, her form and coloring were 
brought back to normal, and Miss Bessie 
smilingly stepped from the plate. 

“That experiment was one of interfer- 
ence, or the nullification of the various 
colorings and shades reflected from the 


128 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

person and attire of my daughter. By 
depressing the lever, I exactly counter- 
balanced the various rates of vibration in- 
cident to the reflection of colors, and the 
result was complete nullification.” 

Again Miss Bessie took her position on 
the brass plate, and at the request of her 
father, sang a familiar song. “Now, 
listen,” he said, turning to us, simultane- 
ously manipulating another lever. Pres- 
to! there was Miss Bessie apparently do- 
ing a pantomime; for, though her lips 
were moving as in song, not a suggestion 
of a sound emanated therefrom. 

Slowly her father released the lever, 
and once again the melodious tones of her 
remarkably sweet voice reached us. 
“Listen again!” continued the Professor, 
and then by degrees, the little but pleas- 
ing voice of Miss Bessie slowly developed 
into the sonorous, resonant, vibrant pow- 
er of an accomplished grand opera singer. 
Then her father augmented her voice to 
far beyond that of ordinary human power, 
the reverberating sounds completely en- 
compassed us, and became clarion-like in 
their intensity. Then as her father gave 
this same lever a slight lateral twist, her 


THE FAIRY LAND OF SCIENCE 129 


voice dropped an octave. We were lis- 
tening to a tenor robusto. Still again he 
turned the lever, and another octave 
downward was the result. Could we be- 
lieve the evidence of our senses? Was 
that beautiful, frail little woman pro- 
ducing such uncouth, rumbling sounds? 
No, we knew that the Vibrometer was re- 
sponsible, and that her natural voice was 
but the relay or trigger; however, the ef- 
fect was strangely incongruous. The 
Professor turned the lever still farther, 
and we could not hear a sound, except an 
occasional low rumble or growl as she 
reached her higher tones, then as her 
father shoved in the lever still farther, 
even these occasional tones escaped our 
ears, but we were jarred and shaken to 
our innermost depths. We were literally 
feeling her intensified song, but at the 
same time not hearing a sound! 

‘‘Now, gentlemen, attention again, 
please.” He then manipulated the same 
lever in an inverse manner, and her voice 
was taken back through the entire gamut 
until once again she was singing after the 
fashion of her own charming self. 

Grasping still another lever, the voice 


ISO THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


rose in pitch by scarcely perceptible steps, 
rather than by leaps of an octave at a 
time; the pitch was becoming almost in- 
conceivably high, our attempts at concen- 
tration being very trying, until finally we 
only heard a few of the lower notes as 
they manifested themselves intermittent- 
ly; then, not a sound. Judging from the 
motion of her lips, Miss Bessie was, how- 
ever, continuing her song. 

“Now what?” exclaimed Professor 
Waldinger; “think you that I have lost 
control? Not a bit of it. We are now in 
a realm wherein there exists some of those 
missing human harp-strings I mentioned 
a while back. Please sit down at that ta- 
ble and place those phones on your ears.” 
We did so, when we again heard Miss 
Bessie’s voice over what duplicated the 
wireless telephone, but the pitch was get- 
ting higher again, when the Professor at 
the switch twisted his lever just a bit and 
we again heard as before; by the act of 
twisting the lever he had utilized the 
“ticker” principle, and we were again 
hearing what would otherwise have been 
inaudible. 

After the repetition of the voice pass- 


THE FAIRY LAND OF SCIENCE 131 


ing out of hearing, and subsequent resto- 
rations, Professor Waldinger cautioned 
us to put on some peculiar looking glasses, 
or goggles, which we did. 

Continuing, the Professor said, “We 
have passed outside of the wireless realm 
and its phone interpretation, into the 
light area, and as we will have to pass 
through the infra-red on the way, it is a 
wise precaution to keep your glasses in 
place!” 

Gradually, after having passed through 
the infra-red section, a dull red light with 
slight variations of shade seemed to per- 
vade the entire laboratory. We were 
now seeing Miss Bessie’s voice; soon the 
harmonics of her voice varied between a 
red and a yellow, passing thereafter into 
a shimmer of bewildering hues, scintillat- 
ing, flashing, until the whole place was lit 
up with a glory indescribable. “Stop,” 
suddenly shouted Professor Turner, “I 
cannot stand it!” With rapid transitions 
the descending scale was passed through, 
and finally, once again the real voice of 
the incomparable Miss Bessie. 

“I could have taken you on through the 
realm of the sense of odor, a unique ex- 


132 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

perience, I assure you, and on through 
the chemical end of the spectrum, and 
vastly further if it were not actually 
gruesome. Never again will I knowing- 
ly allow myself to invade that realm 
higher than the visible spectrum. I can- 
not adequately describe to you what I 
either sensed or thought. It was too ter- 
rifying for ordinary words to properly 
express; too intangible for ordinary vo- 
cabulary to convey. Had I not on that 
occasion released the lever at that point, 
I doubt whether I would now be in the 
land of the living; at any rate, I can at 
least affirm that occultism has at least a 
leg to stand on after all. 

“Returning again to our present ex- 
periment ; as I manipulated the ascending 
scale of Bessie’s voice with the Vibro- 
meter, I purposely eliminated the heat 
area as being too dangerous to invade; a 
slip of the intensity lever would have 
fused us in an instant. 

“You doubtless have been mystified at 
the sliding entrance from air vibrations, 
or sound, into ether vibrations ; well, all I 
can say at this time is, that I worked the 
lever, and the Vibrometer did the rest. 


THE FAIRY LAND OF SCIENCE 133 


To explain in detail would require many 
days. 

“Now, if you will accompany me to the 
drawing room of the bungalow, I will tell 
you how you happen to be here at my dic- 
tation, and will also be pleased to reiterate 
to Professor Turner the theories I pro- 
mulgated on the occasion of the debate 
ten years ago, and today have verified by 
actual demonstration, as you will probably 
agree with me, after my talk will have 
taken you through this fairy-land of sci- 
ence, under the caption of the Dominant 
Ether or Matter and Movement, and 
their relationship to the ether of space.’’ 



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CHAPTER XI. 


The Vindication of Professor 
Waldinger. 

We were all comfortably seated in a 
semicircle facing Professor Waldinger; 
there was an air of expectancy hovering 
about, and a feeling of diffidence pervad- 
ing us, not even excepting Professor 
Turner. 

Eb was at a remote end of the semi- 
circle, and the whites of his eyes were 
shown in marked contrast to the gloom 
back of him. 

Willie and Radio were curled up on the 
rug in front of me. Brown was seated at 
my left, and Professor Turner at my 
right. 

Kepner and Miss Bessie finished the 
semicircle opposite to Eb, and incidentally 
semi-darkness also prevailed at that side 
of the arc, and neither Kepner nor Miss 
Bessie made complaint. 

135 


136 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

Professor Waldinger of course was in 
the center; and again I want to reiterate 
— what a man! The particular angle at 
which the light from above struck the 
thick and powerful lenses of his glasses 
made them seem as though opalescent; 
their extreme thickness and refractibility 
made it impossible for us to locate the pu- 
pil of his eye; I was conscious of endeav- 
oring to find a trace of a shadow, or a 
point of comparative darkness within the 
perimeter of his glasses, but at such times 
as I might have imagined I had located 
it, and thereby gained an idea of the line 
of his vision, it would arbitrarily shift or 
disappear entirely, and again that awe- 
some indefiniteness. I knew full well 
that it wasn’t the glasses alone which thus 
overawed me, it was his wonderful per- 
sonality. 

Without any introductory remarks 
whatever. Professor Waldinger broached 
his subject. It was readily seen that this 
was a moment of keen appreciation by 
him; it was the climax of his ten years of 
voluntary retirement from society. It 
was to this end that he had striven; for 


VINDICATION OF PROF. WALDINGER 137 


this purpose that he had given up the so- 
ciety of his fellow man. 

“Gentlemen, mark well the title of my 
subject; this done, and you will not re- 
quire further urging. The Dominant 
Ether, or Matter and Movement, and 
their relationship to the ether of space. 

“Matter and Movement and the domi- 
nation of both by the Omnipresent Ether 
of Space. You may ask, why do I give 
the attribute of omnipresence to the 
ether ? Simply this, it is but another way 
of making acknowledgment that there are 
some things absolutely non-understand- 
able by the human mind; unmeasureable 
by his devices. Omnipresent because its 
movement is so rapid, and its size so small 
that it is beyond the ability of the human 
mind to grasp. Dominant because of the 
mass such attributes give it. 

“If we grant its size to be almost infin- 
itely small, and its onward movement to 
be almost infinitely rapid, the time ele- 
ment is eliminated, and we then have 
the ether omnipresent or in more 
than one place at the same instant, 
which gives it the characteristics of a per- 
fectly rigid solid, the hypothesis necessary 


138 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

to account for the various phenomena in 
nature. Mark you, I do not say that it 
actually is in two places at once, but that 
as far as our minds are able to grasp such 
infinitely small measurements of time, it 
is. It is a phenomenon which, along 
with that of gravity, belongs to another 
and larger order of things, of which we 
cannot gain a conception any more than 
our finite minds can comprehend a fourth 
dimension. 

“The ether, then, is a thing which we 
cannot even sense directly; but here is an 
opportune time for my definition of mat- 
ter. Matter is merely ether whose on- 
ward motion through space has become 
arrested. Imagine if you will, far off in 
the void spaces beyond, two streams of 
ether moving in diametrically opposite 
directions; what a clash, what a pressure! 
those particles immediately concerned in 
the compress take up a rotary motion 
within this awesome area of pressure, af- 
filiate with their neighbors which may 
happen to have a suitable orbital rate and 
amplitude of movement, ever and always 
being buffeted along in a path of least re- 
sistance within this huge compress, 


VINDICATION OF PROF. WALDINGER 139 

whirled, jostled, always coerced, like a 
piece of driftwood in an eddy where two 
streams of water meet, until finally merg- 
ing into the broad open stream flowing in 
but one direction, but being nevertheless 
dominated by that current! 

“I maintain that in the course of tran- 
sition through this ether compress, that 
matter may run the entire gamut of the so- 
called elementary substances. What it 
has developed into during such compress 
depends upon purely accidental combina- 
tions during the terrific contest for mas- 
tery on the part of these opposing streams 
of ether, which contest incidentally might 
after all be but some very trivial happen- 
ing in that larger order of things to 
which our entire solar system may after 
all be but an atom, and our eternities of 
time, but a fraction of a second. 

“We are warranted in making this 
comparison, for in the little realm where- 
in we find ourselves, we can delve into the 
minute, or reach out among the stars, 
each extreme being so far removed from 
the normal that we are lost in the wonder 
and marvel of it all. Time and space are 
really nothing in the abstract sense. A 


140 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


microscope with a power of a few thou- 
sand diameters will people a seemingly 
clear drop of water with myriads of ani- 
malculae, whose entire span of life comes 
within our few minutes of research work. 
Think you that a second of their time is 
equivalent to a second of our time? 
Think you that these little microcosms 
could even imagine anything beyond their 
drop of water, much less be able to form 
a conception of the microscope peering at 
them — the eye behind it, the room, the 
building, city, universe, etc.? 

“Just in this same proportion may our 
pitiful centuries of travailing be to a sec- 
ond of time in the existence of a being 
belonging to that larger order of things! 

“Some day, centuries hence, when one 
of them will have had sufficient time to 
finish the adjustment of his microscope, 
we may hope to come into his knowledge 
of our very existence. 

“Who knows but that the opposing 
streams of ether may not be defined as 
thought force on the part of the powers 
for Good and Evil; the resulting creation 
of matter and its subsequent evolution 


VINDICATION OF PROF. WALDINGER 141 


being the interpretation of such thought 
conflict! 

“Now, I have said that after having 
been jostled into mid-stream, this ar- 
rested ether, this newly created matter, 
was dominated by the stream into which 
it finally merged; such a particle might 
have been a neighbor at one time to an- 
other particle, which was being domi- 
nated by the opposing stream of ether, or 
might still be within the maelstrom, be- 
coming more and more complex and in- 
tricate with the passing of time. At any 
rate, there is a point of preponderance of 
control pending the final merging into the 
area of absolute domination, and there- 
after it is subservient to it at all times, 
and under all conditions which may per- 
tain. This control or domination pri- 
marily consists in its having assumed a 
characteristic rotary movement such as 
will offer the least opposition to the free 
moving ether hurtling through it, the mo- 
mentary passage of this free ether caus- 
ing a disturbed equilibrium, which during 
the disturbance and the subsequent res- 
toration to normal, causes transverse vi- 
brations in the moving ether, which is the 


142 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


carrier as well as the source of these trans- 
verse vibrations. 

‘‘Time goes on; suns, systems and 
worlds are formed, all of which are con- 
stantly amenable to this same domination 
of the ether. 

“The fate of this created matter is to 
again dissipate, particle by particle; each 
electron, as it becomes less firmly com- 
bined with its neighbors than when under 
the original compress, is hurtled or 
dragged off, into and through space, tak- 
ing up its march again as free ether; in 
other words because of this acquired mo- 
tion and freedom from association, it 
ceases to he matter. 

“The verification of such new obstacles 
put in the path of the ether, I have dem- 
onstrated by the actual workings of my 
Vibrometer, wherein I have co-related the 
senses, degraded the higher rates of vibra- 
tion through a series of resultant or dif- 
ference vibrations, re-combining, and so 
on octave after octave. My Vibrometer 
does this by taking cognizance of those 
transitions in the realm of periodicities 
wherein our senses fail us. 

“Why, my dear Professor Turner, 


VINDICATION OF PROF. WALDINGER 14 S 

have you found it necessary to assume an 
inter-atomic energy let loose in an ex- 
plosive way in order to explain the vari- 
ous phenomena of nature, when in reality 
there is at hand an outside force which 
directs affairs during all changes of equi- 
librium? To my mind, the hypothesis of 
stored up energy within the atom is ab- 
surdly ridiculous, and is comparable to 
the wonderment depicted on a child’s face 
at the spinning of his Vhirlygig,’ the 
child being too young to associate its mo- 
tion with that of the breeze coming from 
the nearby electric fan. 

“A million calories to a gram of radi- 
um bromide during the process of its dis- 
association, and all this energy bound up 
within the salt itself? — surely you could 
not have been serious in such a belief. 
Why should you strive to give to the atom 
greater qualities than its parent, the 
ether? Why have striven to invent a 
jelly-like ether with properties impossible 
for the mind to grasp, and equally unsat- 
isfactory as a working hypothesis as 
well? 

‘T have discovered a substance which 
under electrical control will temporarily 


144 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


interpose itself as an obstacle to the free 
passage of the ether, and to such a de- 
gree as to exceed the force of gravity it- 
self. This excess of energy over and 
above the nullification of the force of 
gravity, I utilize to operate my airship, 
with which I can travel at the amazing 
rate of one thousand miles per hour! I 
can go, and in fact have gone, many hun- 
dreds of times completely around the 
world in twenty-four hours. It was 
through this means of access to the out- 
side world that I learned of your pro- 
posed trip in the ‘America,’ and knew 
that the time for my complete vindication 
had at last arrived. 

“Through the instrumentality of my 
Vibrometer, I deflected the course of the 
‘America’ and nullified your wireless sig- 
nals, both outgoing and incoming. The 
light you see above us emanates from a 
very minute particle of this same sub- 
stance whose resistance to the passage of 
the ether under electrical control is so 
great as to heat it to incandecence. 

“Our earth is a mere microcosm in 
comparison to the cosmos, a grain of sand 
on the seashore. In the vortex where 


VINDICATION OF PROF, WALDINGER 145 


the worlds are born by contending 
streams of ether, newly created matter 
(arrested ether) runs the entire gamut 
of the so-called elementary substances, 
from the simplest to the most complex 
forms, and as it eddies into mid-stream in 
one or the other of the free ether currents, 
is dominated and maintained by that 
stream, and in the course of time or cir- 
cumstance, as the stress has become less- 
ened and equilibriums altered, the more 
complex forms of matter, such as salts 
of radium, lose an occasional particle, re- 
adjust themselves to the new and lessened 
aggregation, thereby acquiring a new 
characteristic motion among its remain- 
ing particles, and so on through the de- 
scending scale back to the simplest ele- 
ment again, and ultimately to nothing- 
ness; the lost particles having in their 
turn taken up their march with the eter- 
nal ether again, and so on until all mat- 
ter will have been disassociated and ab- 
sorbed back into its parent the dominant 
ether stream. 

“The creation of the electric current 
through the medium of the electric gener- 
ator, I have found to be merely a periodic 


146 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 

opposition to the free passage of the dom- 
inant ether. The prime requisite we 
know to be that of changeability from a 
magnetized state back to a state of de- 
magnetization ; in other words, when 
magnetized, the armature opposes the 
free passage of the ether, and when de- 
magnetized, comes back to normal again, 
and like all other forms of matter, with a 
minimum of resistance to its passage. 

“The characteristic periodicity of cop- 
per is such as to convey and preserve the 
impulses occasioned by the conflict be- 
tween the dominant ether and the tem- 
porarily obtrusive armature. This abil- 
ity to pass the energy along to point of 
usability constitutes a good electrical 
conductor, while insulators fail almost 
completely as current carriers. 

“The dominant ether takes cognizance 
of every change of equilibrium, and dic- 
tates the new order of things. For in- 
stance, in the phenomenon of crystalliza- 
tion, according to my premises, sulphate 
of iron is sulphate of iron and not sul- 
phate of copper, merely because its char- 
acteristic is different; the same order or 
nature of ultimate particles go to make 


VINDICATION OF PROF. WALDINGER 147 


up both, but their number per unit, their 
relations to each other, their rate and 
amplitude of motion, and what not, all 
serve to give them their own character- 
istics or individualities.^ 

“In the phenomenon of crystallization 
there takes place a change from the liq- 
uid to the solid state; the dominant ether 
prescribes what the solid form shall be, 
which form, with all of its symmetry of 
definite geometrical figures bounded by 
flat surfaces, to my mind is nothing more 
than a mathematical expression of the 
characteristic motion of sulphate of iron, 
to that of the dominant ether itself. 

“Transverse motions of the various 
forces accompanying the phenomenon of 
radio-activity, even though their speed 
approaches that of light, is, in reality, but 
a snail’s pace as compared to the twenti- 
eth century limited; they pale into mere 
insignificance by contrast. 

“Oh, the mutability of things. This 
incomparable frolic and dance of the at- 
oms; whether they be in the bauble of 
the court jester, or in the crown of his 
king, it matters not, the little dervishes 
whirl on.” 


148 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


The Professor had finished his dis- 
course, and promising us a trip on his air- 
ship on the morrow, we all sought our 
separate apartments. 


CHAPTER XII. 

The Crater Cork Blows Out. 

The following day we were awakened 
with the same pleasurable experience as 
on the preceding morning, and were 
looking forward to the promised jaunt in 
the Professor’s airship, which, by the way, 
he called the “Electron.” 

The “Electron” was not the airship in 
which he made his almost daily trips, but 
was a vastly larger one, built to carry 
heavy and bulky articles of such a nature 
as could not be produced in his island do- 
main. 

The “Electron” was wheeled from its 
hangar by several husky attendants. Its 
outward appearance was that of a huge 
crystal ball, fully twenty feet in diameter, 
its glass walls were all of two inches in 
thickness, and capable of withstanding 
enormous pressures. It was ribbed with 
two great circles, which divided the sphere 
into eight sections; the ribs or bands be- 
ing where the glass sections were joined 
and hermetically sealed. 

149 


150 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


The controlling device was in the upper 
half of the sphere, and was sujiported by 
an aluminum trestle. 

We all entered by the single trap door, 
and it required no little coaxing to induce 
Radio to enter. Once inside, the Pro- 
fessor closed the trap door, carefully ad- 
justing several screws, and then bidding 
us to be seated on the circular bench gird- 
ling the sphere at an elevation of about 
two feet above the central depression, he 
mounted the trestle to the top of the 
sphere. Professor Turner accompanying 
him. 

“All ready? We are about to start,” 
hailed Professor Waldinger, and then, 
without a jolt or a jar, or an appreciable 
change of our equilibrium, at precisely 
ten o’clock A. M., our car shot up, 
straight up, at a tremendous speed. With 
one accord (save Miss Bessie, of course) 
we involuntarily uttered cries of dismay, 
and even terror, for, what was to keep us 
from falling? the clear transparency of 
the glass walls did not obstruct our view 
in the slightest degree, and we simply 
could not realize that it would afford a 
support for our footing. It was as 


THE CRATER CORK BLOWS OUT 151 


though we were soaring miles high, sitting 
on a circular bench with nothing to hold 
to. 

I experienced a peculiar nauseating 
feeling at first, but soon became accus- 
tomed to the novel situation. Far, far 
below us, probably fifty or a hundred 
miles, was old mother earth, slowly, pon- 
derously revolving! 

The Professor explained that the in- 
stant he turned on the power, we were 
left in the path of the earth, because, 
through the application of his mysterious 
power, we had become differentiated 
from all other forms of matter on the 
earth; an independent entity, so to speak, 
for the time being. We were now catch- 
ing up to the earth once more, the Pro- 
fessor having turned off his mysterious 
force; he now turned on the power again, 
but only slightly, until his mysterious 
force and that of the attractive force of 
gravity exactly counterbalanced each 
other, and as a consequence, we neither 
caught up to, nor were left further in 
the rear; we were following the earth in 
its yearly orbit about the sun, while the 
earth was revolving below us with math- 


152 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


ematical precision. This condition gave 
us the sensation of traveling around the 
earth, whereas, in reality, it was furnish- 
ing us a panoramic view at the rate of one 
thousand miles per hour. 

We realized that the sea had passed 
beneath us during our higher flight, and 
we were sailing over dry land, or rather 
the dry land was slipping rapidly to the 
eastward. We judged this land to be 
that of Australia. 

“We will now pursue a diagonally 
northwestward course,” called out Pro- 
fessor Waldinger, “so that we may pass 
over, or rather, so that we may review the 
passing of the northern hemisphere.” 

It is futile for me to endeavor to con- 
vey my impressions, as the marvel of it 
all was beyond words to adequately ex- 
press; suffice to say, that in just about 
twenty-six hours, we again landed in the 
exact spot from where we had started. 
It was noon the following day, and as we 
were all in need of sleep, having just 
passed a period of continuous daylight, 
we sought our respective couches. 

The entire party had been so entranced 
with our experiences in the “Electron” 


THE CRATER CORK BLOWS OUT 153 


that thereafter an excursion was of almost 
daily occurrence. However, Professor 
Waldinger did not accompany us, but del- 
egated his daughter to act as pilot, and 
she proved herself to be quite adept in its 
manipulation. Not for an instant would 
either she or her father allow its control 
to be vested in other hands than their own ; 
not even Kepner with all his persuasive- 
ness could induce Miss Bessie to relin- 
quish her post in his favor, and as for any 
of the rest of us making such a request 
of Professor Waldinger, it was never 
even dreamed of. 

This particular morning, the Professor, 
in returning from a solitary visit to some 
portion of the crater, wore an anxious, 
perplexed expression ; he started to speak 
on several occasions, but seemingly on 
after thought held his peace. 

The Professors had by this time 
become fast friends; the rancour of 
their experiences ten years previously 
evidently having been entirely forgotten. 
They spent most of their time in the lab- 
oratory, which left the rest of us to our 
own devices, and as before stated, the 
‘"Electron” became very popular. 


154 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


We had visited almost every country 
on the globe; had hovered exactly over 
both the north and south poles, dipped 
into the sea to depths heretofore unex- 
plored, and in fact had poked into almost 
every nook and cranny, and still sighed 
for new sensations. 

On one occasion we were gone so long 
that the Professor had become very much 
worried about the safety of his daughter 
and party. It happened in this manner: 

At our unanimous solicitations Miss 
Bessie was induced to allow the earth to 
move much farther away than had been 
her practice. In fact on this occasion we 
had almost gotten outside of the domina- 
tion of the earth into that of the moon, 
and it was problematical for a few min- 
utes as to whether the “Electron” would 
hold her allegiance to the earth, or fickly 
surrender it to the moon. These two 
forces being practically in equilibrium 
occasioned many grotesque experiences 
within the “Electron,” as we had no sense 
of weight whatever; there was no distinc- 
tion as to whether a thing was upside 
down, or down side up ; it was all the same 
to us. However, through the clever 


THE CRATER CORK BLOWS OUT 155 


manipulations and perserverance of Miss 
Bessie, we finally merged flilly and pos- 
itively back into the gravitational control 
of mother earth. It was a narrow escape, 
and thereafter we were content with soar- 
ings within a few miles of the earth at 
most. 

We pointed the ‘‘Electron” homeward, 
along towards two o’clock in the after- 
noon, maintaining an altitude of approx- 
imately fifteen miles, when Miss Bessie 
uttered a but half-suppressed scream of 
terror; she had been making straight for 
the steam column, but had noticed that 
its appearance was far from normal; 
great clouds of steam were seething up- 
ward, and on entering its embrace, we 
could not discern the customary trans- 
parency at its center as we were wont to 
do. Often we had descended down this 
hollow shaft of steam to the crater below, 
but now it was a furiously whirling, tur- 
bulent mass, devoid of anything like its 
accustomed symmetrical funnel shape, 
and in a flash we realized what Miss Bes- 
sie had already discerned — the crater 
cork had blown out! 


CHAPTER XIII. 

The Burial of the Electron. 

It was with the utmost presence of 
mind and an astonishing amount of grit 
that Miss Bessie retained control of the 
“Electron.” “ ‘Shale Rock Cavern/ make 
for that,” exclaimed Kepner, and silently, 
but unerringly, our brave little pilot 
nestled the “Electron” just outside the 
doorway of our long abandoned retreat, 
and promptly fainted. 

Eager and sympathetic hands assisted 
Kepner to remove our lady pilot down the 
trestle, and placing her gently on a pile of 
rugs in the bottom of the car, we devoted 
ourselves to restore her to consciousness, 
and with eventual success. She sat up- 
right with a terrified light in her eyes, 
“My father, my poor dear father. I shall 
never see him again.” 

Indeed it was but too true ; as Professor 
Waldinger had foretold, the steam pres- 
sure had become so excessive as to force 
156 


THE BURIAL OF THE ELECTRON 157 

out the crater plug, his home, his domain, 
miles high into the air. 

From the interior of the “Electron” 
we could see evidences of the crater de- 
bris scattered about; Brown almost tear- 
fully pointed to an object some fifty feet 
away. It was the steering wheel of the 
“America.” 

By this time Miss Bessie was in tears, 
the reaction had come, and we did all we 
could to comfort her because of her griev- 
ous loss. 

Our own dear Professor Turner, he 
too was lost to us, and sadly we held coun- 
cil, still within the crystal sphere. 

Miss Bessie desired above all things to 
get away from the island and its vicinity, 
so we unanimously decided to make for 
our own dear home-land without delay. 
With Miss Bessie again at the wheel, we 
rose slowly, almost funereally, above the 
island. “High Bock” looked like a mere 
stepping stone from our great altitude, 
and the inland sea with its well-like walls, 
and all, slowly disappeared from our 
sight, till finally the only visible evidence 
of the island was the familiar steam pall! 
In a few minutes that too disappeared 


158 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


from our sight, and “Steam Mountain” 
island became but a memory. 

Miss Bessie landed the “Electron” up- 
on a gravel beach in an unfrequented spot 
but a few miles from the outskirts of San 
Diego, California, and we disembarked. 

We were much distressed to note the 
strain Miss Bessie was undergoing; the 
fact that she alone could operate the 
“Electron” had given her no chance to 
relax, and at the same time gave us no 
opportunity to be of assistance to her. 

A firm resolve seemed to have taken 
possession of her almost the same instant 
of landing. “My friends,” said she, “the 
‘Electron’ but serves to remind me of my 
recent bereavement, and it is my purpose 
to set it adrift. I wish to have nothing 
to remind me of the loss of my dear fath- 
er.” 

So without further ado, she stepped 
alone into the interior of the “Electron,” 
attached a stout cord to the starting lever, 
brought the other end down through the 
open door, and taking a position some 
twenty feet away, pulled the string. 
Slowly, majestically, rose the “Electron” 
straight up, its speed accelerating as it 


THE BURIAL OF THE ELECTRON 159 


progressed. Up, up, until finally lost to 
our gaze. She had buried the “Electron’’ 
in the fathomless abyss of the eternal 
ether, and, for all I know, the “Electron” 
is still pursuing its solitary flight through 
space ! 

There is little else to relate, save that 
we sought shelter in the home of an ac- 
quaintance of mine, living in San Diego, 
and we were much relieved to witness 
Miss Bessie sobbing herself to sleep on 
the sympathetic bosom of my friend’s 
wife. 

Within a few days thereafter, we got 
into radioscope communication with the 
editor of the Chicago Enquirer and, ow- 
ing to the courtesy of the American Soci- 
ety of Scientific Research, we are here 
with you tonight. 

Some of you may wish to know if Kep- 
ner and Miss Bessie were married in the 
interim; well, as to that, since they are 
both present, you may ask them your- 
selves, and I can assure you that they will 
not consider the question a personal one. 

In those portions of my talk wherein I 
attempted to repeat the words of Profes- 
sor Waldinger’s memorable discourse on 


160 THE WIZARD OF THE ISLAND 


Matter and Motion and their relationship 
to the Dominant Ether, I trust that you 
will take into consideration the fact that 
I make no pretensions as a physicist, but 
rather have merely attempted in my 
feeble way to recall his sayings as they 
had impressed me. 

Thanking you for the patience accord- 
ed my rather lengthy account of our ex- 
periences, I bid you a kindly good-night. 






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